cynic [M16th] The original Cynics were members of a school of ancient Greek philosophers who displayed a contempt for wealth, luxury, and pleasure, believing that such things distracted a person from the quest for self-knowledge. The word comes from Greek kunikos. The Greek word probably derives from Kunosarges, the name of the school where one of their founders, Antisthenes, taught. This is more likely than the traditional story that the word comes from the Greek word for dog, kuōn, and so means ‘doglike or churlish’. See also academy, epicure, stoic.