A sardonic action is one that is "disdainfully or skeptically humorous" or "derisively mocking". Also, when referring to laughter or a smile, it is "bitter, scornful, mocking". Hence, when referring to a person or a personal attribute, it is with bitterness, scorn or mockery. A form of wit or humour, being sardonic often involves expressing an uncomfortable truth in a clever and not necessarily malicious way, commonly with a degree of cynicism.
Origin
Both the concept and the etymology of the word, while being of uncertain origin, appear to stem from the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. The 10th-century Byzantine Greek encyclopedia Suda traces the word's earliest roots to the notion of grinning in the face of danger, or curling one's lips back at evil. One explanation for the later alteration to its more familiar form and connection to laughter appears to stem from an ancient belief that ingesting the sardonion plant from Sardinia would result in convulsions resembling laughter and, ultimately, death. In Theory and History of Folklore, Vladimir Propp discusses alleged examples of ritual laughter accompanying death and killing, all involving groups. These he characterized as sardonic laughter:
Among the very ancient people of Sardinia, who were called Sardi or Sardoni, it was customary to kill old people. While killing their old people, the Sardi laughed loudly. This is the origin of notorious sardonic laughter. In light of our findings things begin to look different. Laughter accompanies the passage from death to life; it creates life and accompanies birth. Consequently, laughter accompanying killing transforms death into a new birth, nullifies murder as such, and is an act of piety that transforms death into a new life.
A root form may first appear in Homer's Odyssey as the Ancient Greeksardánios, altered by influence of the wordSardonios, originated from a Greek phrase which meant "to be sneered", "tearing of flesh" or for scornful laughter. From the sardónios evolved the sardonius, thence the sardonique, and ultimately the familiar English adjectival form, sardonic. In the English vernacular, it was recorded and utilized in the 1579 "The Shepheard’s Calendar".
''Risus sardonicus''
Risus sardonicus is an apparent smile on the face of those who are convulsing because of tetanus, or strychnine poisoning. From the Oxford English Dictionary, "A fixed, grin-like expression resulting from spasm of facial muscles, esp. in tetanus." Also:
facial muscles may cause a characteristic expression called Risus sardonicus or Risus caninus. This facial expression has also been observed among patients with tetanus. Risus sardonicus causes a patient's eyebrows to rise, eyes to bulge, and mouth to retract dramatically, resulting in what has been described as an evil-looking grin.
In 2009, scientists at the University of Eastern Piedmont in Italy claimed to have identified hemlock water dropwort as the plant responsible for producing the sardonic grin. This plant is the candidate for the "sardonic herb", which was a neurotoxic plant used for the ritual killing of elderly people in pre-Roman Sardinia. When these people were unable to support themselves, they were intoxicated with this herb and then dropped from a high rock or beaten to death.
Ideas and usage
, from his first book of the series Dune, remarked:
