What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Cynical vs Snark - What's the difference?

cynical | snark |

As an adjective cynical

is of or relating to the cynics, 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.

As a proper noun snark is

a fictional animal in '' ''(the hunting of the snark) .

cynical

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Of or relating to the belief that human actions are motivated only or primarily by base desires or selfishness.
  • *(Samuel Johnson) (1709-1784)
  • *:I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received.
  • Skeptical of the integrity, sincerity, or motives of others.
  • Bitterly or jadedly distrustful or contemptuous; mocking.
  • *
  • *:He seldom talked, and when he did, it was usually to make some cynical remark-for instance, he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies.
  • Showing contempt for accepted moral standards by one's actions.
  • *
  • *:When he, at Neergard's cynical suggestion, had consented to exploit his own cluband had consented to resign from it to do so, he had every reason to believe that Neergard meant to either mulct them heavily or buy them out. In either case, having been useful to Neergard, his profits from the transaction would have been considerable.
  • Like the actions of a snarling dog.
  • :

    • References

    * * *

    snark

    English

    Etymology 1

    Compare Low German snarken, North Frisian snarke, Swedish snarka, and English snort, and snore. Noun sense of “snide remarks” derived from snarky (1906), from snark (v.) "to snort" (1866) by onomatopoiea. (en)

    Noun

    (-)
  • Snide remarks.
    • Synonyms
    * (snide comments) sarcasm
    Related terms
    * snarkiness * snarky

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To express oneself in a snarky fashion
  • * {{quote-news, 2009, January 23, Dwight Garner, The Mahvelous and the Damned, New York Times citation
    • , passage=Other would-be Bright Young People, Lytton Strachey snarked , seemed to have “just a few feathers where brains should be.” }}
  • (obsolete) To snort.
    • Derived terms
    * snarker

    Etymology 2

    From (Snark), coined by (Lewis Carroll) as a nonce word in 1874 (The Hunting of the Snark), about the quest for an elusive creature. In sense of “a type of mathematical graph”, named as such in 1976 by (Martin Gardner) for their elusiveness.Martin Gardner, (Mathematical Games), (Scientific American), issue 234, volume 4, pp. 126–130, 1976.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (mathematics) A graph in which every node has three branches, and the edges cannot be coloured in fewer than four colours without two edges of the same colour meeting at a point.
  • (particle) A fluke or unrepeatable result or detection in an experiment.
    • Cabrera's Valentine's Day monopole detection or some extremely energetic cosmic rays could be examples of snarks .

    References

    Anagrams

    * English eponyms