PODSNAPPIAN ADJ. relating to, or characteristic of Dickens's Mr. Podsnap; complacent, self-satisfied, blinkered, narrow-minded ...1866 ETYMOLOGY from the name of John Podsnap (a character in Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend (1865), known for his complacency and refusal to face up to unpleasant facts) + -ian FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1866 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...With Podsnappian dislike of improprieties, they fear lest it should "bring a blush to the cheek of a young person," and hence demand that the very existence of this class of crimes should be ignored in fiction as well as in every-day life..." From: The Galaxy. An Illustrated Magazine of Entertaining Reading. September 1, 1866, to December 15, 1866 The Seventh Commandment in Modern Fiction - W.L. Alden
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