2. A person whose outlook is scornfully and often habitually negative.
A Cynic was an ancient Greek philosopher or a member of a group of ancient Greek philosophers who believed that virtue is the only good and that the only means of achieving it was through self-control. The sect was founded by Antisthenes in the 4th century B.C. From Greek kunikos and then through Latin cynicus, "dog".
These sect members had a doglike insolence, a doglike disregard for social customs, a doglike use of tubs or kennels for sleeping, and a currish insistence upon one's own opinion. It may have been a coincidence that the Greek word for "doglike" is cynikos.
The word cynic had not been in English very long before it was applied to any faultfinding critic, especially to someone who doubts the sincerity of all human motives except self-interest.
The Greek word kunikos, from which "cynic" comes, was originally an adjective meaning "doglike", from kuōn, "dog".
The word was probably applied to the Cynic philosophers because of the nickname kuōn given to Diogenes of Sinope, the prototypical Cynic.
The first use of the word recorded in English, in a work published from 1547 to 1564, is in the plural for members of this philosophical sect. In 1596, we find the first instance of cynic meaning "faultfinder", a sense that was to develop into our modern-English usage.
The meaning "faultfinder" came naturally from the behavior of countless Cynics who in their pursuit of virtue pointed out the various flaws in others. Such faultfinding could led to the belief associated with cynics of today that selfishness determines human behavior.
