# Timonize

> English word · Verb

## Definitions
1. To behave as a misanthrope.
2. To cause (someone) to slide into bitter misanthropy, into Timonism.

## Etymology
From Timon + -ize, after the 5th-century-BCE person Timon of Athens (as described by Plutarch, Lucian, and Aristophanes), possibly by way of William Shakespeare's play Timon of Athens (c. 1607). Used intransitively by William Darrell in his book The Gentleman Instructed (1713), and transitively by Herman Melville in his novel Pierre (1852).

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/timonize