cyno-, cyn-, kyno-, kyn-

A genus of chiefly American perennial herbs of the dogbane family (Apocynaceae) with opposite leaves and small white or pink flowers comprising the dogbanes of which several are the source of substances with physiological activity resembling digitalis.

Dogbanes are perennial herbaceous plants, with poisonous milky juice, bearing slender pods in pairs; said to be poisonous to dogs.

1. A mixed-breed dog, especially one that is ill-natured or in poor condition.
2. A contemptible person; an offensive term for someone regarded as mean, cowardly, or otherwise unpleasant.
3. Etymology: Middle English curre, perhaps of Scandinavian origin; however, it is not directly related to this Latin cyno-, "dog" family. It has been included because of its significance to the "dog" topic presented in this unit.

1. Having a hostile or disagreeable disposition.
2. Snarling and bad-tempered.
3. Etymology: from about 1175–1225; Middle English curre; apparently shortened from curdogge, "a worthless dog".

1. Curlike; snarling; quarrelsome.
2. Resembling a cur; like a mongrel (dog that is a mixture of different breeds).
3. Etymology: NOT related to the Latin cyno- family; however, it was placed here because of its relevance to this unit.

1. The delusion that a person has about being a dog which is imagined by the person who barks and growls.
2. A species of madness in which people imagine themselves to be dogs.
3. Insanity in which the patient behaves like a dog.

Bear-baiting using dogs.

The art of hunting with dogs.

Dogfish.

1. A branch of veterinary medicine that specializes in the treatment of dogs.
2. The study of canine diseases.

1. A person who believes all people are motivated by selfishness.
2. A person whose outlook is scornfully and often habitually negative.

A Cynic was an ancient Greek philosopher or a member of a group of ancient Greek philosophers who believed that virtue is the only good and that the only means of achieving it was through self-control. The sect was founded by Antisthenes in the 4th century B.C. From Greek kunikos and then through Latin cynicus, "dog".

These sect members had a doglike insolence, a doglike disregard for social customs, a doglike use of tubs or kennels for sleeping, and a currish insistence upon one's own opinion. It may have been a coincidence that the Greek word for "doglike" is cynikos.

The word cynic had not been in English very long before it was applied to any faultfinding critic, especially to someone who doubts the sincerity of all human motives except self-interest.

A member of a sect of ancient Greek philosophers who believed virtue to be the only good and self-control to be the only means of achieving virtue.

The Greek word kunikos, from which "cynic" comes, was originally an adjective meaning "doglike", from kuōn, "dog".

The word was probably applied to the Cynic philosophers because of the nickname kuōn given to Diogenes of Sinope, the prototypical Cynic.

The first use of the word recorded in English, in a work published from 1547 to 1564, is in the plural for members of this philosophical sect. In 1596 we find the first instance of cynic meaning "faultfinder," a sense that was to develop into our modern-English usage.

The meaning "faultfinder" came naturally from the behavior of countless Cynics who in their pursuit of virtue pointed out the various flaws in others. Such faultfinding could lead quite naturally to the belief associated with cynics of today that selfishness determines human behavior.

1. Given to distrusting evidences of virtue and disinterested motives; inclined to moral skepticism; pessimistic.
2. Currish; sneering.

1. An attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others: the public cynicism aroused by governmental scandals.
2. A scornfully or jadedly negative comment or act.
3. Cynicism: The beliefs of the ancient Cynics.

Pertaining to or a reference to a ruling body of cynics.

Spasm of the facial muscles causing a grin or snarl like a dog.