Etymology From Timon + -ist, after the 5th-century-BCE person Timon of Athens (as described by Plutarch, Lucian, and Aristophanes). Used by Robert Greene in his Greene's Mourning Garment (1590). (William Shakespeare's play Timon of Athens is usually estimated c. 1607 and would not have influenced Greene; however, some consider the play could be one of Shakespeare's earliest, and could then have been Greene's source.)
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A sort of bitter misanthrope related to Timonism, like Timon of Athens.
Yet was he not … such a Timonist, but hee would familiarly conuerse with his friends. [sic]1590, Robert Greene, Greene's Mourning Garment
I did it to retyre me from the vvorld; / And turne my Muſe into a Timoniſt, […]1601 (first performance), Thomas Dekker, Satiro-mastix. Or The Untrussing of the Humorous Poet. […], London: […] [Edward Allde] for Edward White, […], published 1602, →OCLC, signature L3, recto:
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Cynicism is often contrasted with "Timonism" (cf. Shakespeare's Timon of Athens). Cynics saw what people could be & were angered by what they had become; Timonists felt humans were hopelessly stupid & uncaring by nature & so saw no hope for change.1988, Paul Ollswang, "Cynicism"
Timonist
adj
Etymology From Timon + -ist, after the 5th-century-BCE person Timon of Athens (as described by Plutarch, Lucian, and Aristophanes). Used by Robert Greene in his Greene's Mourning Garment (1590). (William Shakespeare's play Timon of Athens is usually estimated c. 1607 and would not have influenced Greene; however, some consider the play could be one of Shakespeare's earliest, and could then have been Greene's source.)
1
Of a form of bitter misanthropy related to Timonism, like Timon of Athens.
Marston poses as the Timonist malcontent satirist ready to excoriate the world for its follies.1988, Maurice Charney, Hamlet's fictions