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Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry:  sardonic
Part of Speech:  adj
Definition:  scornful, mocking; disdainfully humorous
Etymology:  Greek sardonios 'derisive'

Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.7)
Copyright © 2003-2008 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
sardonic

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
sar·don·ic    Audio Help   [sahr-don-ik] Pronunciation Key
–adjective
characterized by bitter or scornful derision; mocking; cynical; sneering: a sardonic grin.

[Origin: 1630–40; alter. of earlier sardonian (influenced by F sardonique) < L sardoni(us) (< Gk sardónios of Sardinia) + -an; alluding to a Sardinian plant which when eaten was supposed to produce convulsive laughter ending in death]

sar·don·i·cal·ly, adverb
sar·don·i·cism, noun

biting, mordant, contemptuous.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
sar·don·ic    Audio Help   (sär-dŏn'ĭk)  Pronunciation Key 
adj.   Scornfully or cynically mocking. See Synonyms at sarcastic.


[French sardonique, from Greek sardonios, alteration of sardanios.]

sar·don'i·cal·ly adv., sar·don'i·cism (-ĭ-sĭz'əm) n.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
sardonic 
1638, from Fr. sardonique (16c.), from L. sardonius (but as if from L. *sardonicus) in Sardonius risus, loan-translation of Gk. sardonios (gelos) "of bitter or scornful (laughter)," altered from Homeric sardanios (of uncertain origin) by influence of Sardonios "Sardinian," because the Greeks believed that eating a certain plant they called sardonion (lit. "plant from Sardinia," see Sardinia) caused facial convulsions resembling those of sardonic laughter, usually followed by death. For nuances of usage, see humor.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
sardonic

adjective
disdainfully or ironically humorous; scornful and mocking; "his rebellion is the bitter, sardonic laughter of all great satirists"- Frank Schoenberner; "a wry pleasure to be...reminded of all that one is missing"- Irwin Edman 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Sardonic

Sar*don"ic\, a. [F. sardonique, L. sardonius, Gr. ?, ?, perhaps fr. ? to grin like a dog, or from a certain plant of Sardinia, Gr. ?, which was said to screw up the face of the eater.] Forced; unnatural; insincere; hence, derisive, mocking, malignant, or bitterly sarcastic; -- applied only to a laugh, smile, or some facial semblance of gayety.

Where strained, sardonic smiles are glozing still, And grief is forced to laugh against her will. --Sir H. Wotton.

The scornful, ferocious, sardonic grin of a bloody ruffian. --Burke.

Sardonic grin or laugh, an old medical term for a spasmodic affection of the muscles of the face, giving it an appearance of laughter.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Sardonic

Sar*don"ic\, a. Of, pertaining to, or resembling, a kind of linen made at Colchis.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Dictionary.com Word of the Day Archive - Cite This Source - Share This

sardonic

sardonic was Word of the Day on November 17, 1999.

Dictionary.com Word of the Day
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