PECKSNIFFIANADJ.
making high pretensions to benevolence and virtue while really mean, selfish, and hypocritical ...1844 ETYMOLOGY from the name of a character, Seth Pecksniff, in Charles Dickens' novel "Martin Chuzzlewit", 1844; he is presented as an unctuous hypocrite, habitually prating of benevolence, etc. FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1844 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...with so many things calculated to awaken the liveliest recollections of his former occupation in the Pecksniffian school of design." From: The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal, Scientific and Railway Gazette Epistle to Charles Dickens Volume VII, 1844 SOURCES • A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, James Murray, 1887-1933 • A Standard Dictionary of the English Language, Isaac K. Funk, 1908 • Passing English of the Victorian Era, James Redding Ware, 1909
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
September 2021
|