Misanthrope

The story of the word

Greek μισάνθρωπος was aimed at Timon above all, and Plato uses it in the Phaedo for a man soured by trusting the wrong people too often, arguing that the fault lies in his judgement rather than in humanity. English took it in the sixteenth century and Molière's comedy of 1666 fixed the type: a man whose contempt for polite lying is both correct and unbearable. The matching μισογύνης gives misogynist.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → French → English

First recorded

16th century