释义 |
Menippean, a.|mɪˈnɪpɪən| [f. the name of Menippus of Gadara (fl. 3rd cent. bc), Cynic philosopher and writer + -ean.] Characteristic of or resembling the style of satirical writing associated with Menippus. Usu. in Menippean satire.
1728Chambers Cycl. s.v., Menippean, or Satyra Menippea. It is thus call'd from Menippas, a Cynic Philosopher, who delighted in composing Satyrical Letters, &c. 1797Encycl. Brit. XI. 388/1 Menippean,..a kind of satire consisting of prose and verse intermixed. It is thus called from Menippus a cynic philosopher. 1813Pantologia VII. s.v. Menippus, He wrote some snarlish satires, for which reason writings of that stamp have been sometimes called Menippean. 1908W. P. Dickson tr. T. Mommsen's Hist. Rome V. 488 It resulted both from the nature of the Cynical philosophy and from the temperament of Varro, that the Menippean lash was very specially plied round the ears of the philosophers. 1976M. McLuhan Let. 3 Feb. (1987) 517 Most of my writing is Menippean satire, presenting the actual surface of the world we live in as a ludicrous image. 1985Rev. Eng. Stud. Feb. 131 The book is enlivening because of the consciously unstuffy ‘menippean’ quality in its ‘clashes of genre and changes of tone’. |