Timonize

Meaning

Verb

• To behave as a misanthrope.
• To cause (someone) to slide into bitter misanthropy, into Timonism.

Origin

• Timon + -ize, from the 5th-century BC person Timon of Athens (as described by Plutarch, Lucian, Aristophanes), possibly by way of William Shakespeare's play Timon of Athens (c. 1607). Used intransitively by William Darrell in his book The Gentleman Instructed (1713). Used transitively by Herman Melville in his novel Pierre (1852).