cynic

Member of a school of Greek philosophy (cynicism), founded in Athens about 400 BC by Antisthenes, a disciple of Socrates, who advocated a stern and simple morality and a complete disregard of pleasure and comfort.

His followers, led by Diogenes, not only showed a contemptuous disregard for pleasure, but despised all human affection as a source of weakness. Their ‘snarling contempt’ for ordinary people earned them the name of cynic (Greek ‘doglike’).