cynic
/sinnik/ • noun 1 a person who has little faith in the integrity or sincerity of others. 2 a sceptic. 3 (Cynic) (in ancient Greece) a member of a school of philosophers founded by Antisthenes, characterized by an ostentatious contempt for wealth and pleasure. — DERIVATIVES cynicism noun. — ORIGIN Greek kunikos; probably originally from Kunosarges, the name of a gymnasium where the philosopher Antisthenes taught, but popularly taken to mean ‘doglike, churlish’, kuon ‘dog’ becoming a nickname for a Cynic.
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