Reference > Brewer’s Dictionary > Cynic.

 Cynægi’ros.Cynic Tub (The). 
CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
 
Cynic.
 
A snarling, churlish person, like a cynic. The Cynics were so called because Antis’thens held his school in the gymnasium called Cynosar’gs, set apart for those who were not of pure Athenian blood. Cynosargs means white dog, and was so called because a white dog once carried away part of a victim which Diome’os was offering to Herculs. The sect was often called the Dog-sect; and the effigy over Diogns’ pillar was a dog, with this inscription:   1
       
“Say, dog, I pray, what guard you in that tomb?”
“A dog.”—“His name?”—“Diogns.”—“From far?”
“Sino’p.”—“What! who made a tub his home?”
“The same; now dead, amongst the stars a star.”
       
E. C. B.
 


 Cynægi’ros.Cynic Tub (The). 

 
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