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martinet

  (mär'tn-ĕt') pronunciation
n.
  1. A rigid military disciplinarian.
  2. One who demands absolute adherence to forms and rules.

[After Jean Martinet (died 1672), French army officer.]


 
 
Thesaurus: martinet

noun

    One who imposes or favors absolute obedience to authority: authoritarian, autocrat, despot, dictator, totalitarian, tyrant. See over/under.

 

n. a strict disciplinarian, especially in the armed forces.

martinetish also martinettish adj.

Etymology: late 17th cent. (denoting the drill system invented by Martinet): named after Jean Martinet, 17th-cent. French drillmaster.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

 
Word Tutor: martinet
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: One who demands strict obedience.

pronunciation The crew of the ship rebelled when they realized that the captain was a martinet who demanded obedience without thought to consequences.

 
Wikipedia: martinet

A martinet is either a punitive device or a stickler for rules, apparently unrelated.

Object

A simple, small martinet.
Enlarge
A simple, small martinet.

The French word denotes a type of hammer (in French probably derived from marteau). A martinet is a short, scourge-like (multi-tail) type of whip made of a wooden handle of about 25 cm (10 inches) in length and about 10 lashes of equal, relatively short length. The lashes are usually made of leather, but sometimes soap-stiffened cords are used in place of leather. It is a traditional instrument of physical punishment in France (in French it also meant a similar dusting implement; the type for chastisement was also known as fouet d'enfant, 'child's whip') and other European countries.

The martinet was often applied on the calves, for children did not have to disrobe that way. Otherwise it was often applied on the bare buttocks, adding a dose of humiliation to the physical pain, like the English and Commonwealth caning, birching, naval boy's pussy, American paddling, et cetera. As it is not blunt, and heavy, impact on clothes would be reduced too much to remain effective.

It is generally considered abusive to use it for spanking children in modern times. Still, martinets were still sold in the pet section of French supermarkets; it is generally believed that a large share of those sold are meant for use on children, not pets, or at least to threaten them. But nowadays many supermarkets in France have stopped selling the martinet even in the pet section. It is also often still carried demonstratively by Zwarte Pieten (male black assistants of Saint Nicholas, the European original of Santa Claus, celebrated on December 6; attribute persisting where lashes are banned, as in Belgium) to chastise very naughty kids instead of leaving presents.

  • The martinet is also used as an implement in erotic spanking scenes, hard to distinguish from the flogger but that is usually lighter.
  • A French homonym, from first name Martin and suffix -et, is a kind of swallow.

Martinet as a person

in French

The term was used for an external pupil of a collège (i.e. continental high school, especially Catholic)

in English terms

  • In English, the term martinet is usually used not in reference to the whip itself, but rather him who would use it, a person who demands strict adherence to set rules, especially such a person in the military.

This sense of the word reputedly comes from the name of Jean Martinet, Inspector General of the army of Louis XIV (one of the first great drill masters of modern times, died 1672) and thus would be etymologically only by accident related to the earlier sense. It was the drill master who revolutionized the early modern army by instituting a standardized system capable of turning raw recruits into a disciplined fighting force, thereby eliminating the mercenaries and soldiers-of-fortune who had been the mainstays of earlier armies.

History records that Martinet was eventually killed by friendly fire while leading an infantry assault at the siege of Duisberg. Whether or not this was entirely accidental is, of course, a matter of conjecture.

  • In an extended sense, a martinet is a person for whom rules and etiquette are paramount: martinets often use etiquette and other rules as an excuse to trump ethics, to the point that etiquette loses its ethical ground.

Sources

(incomplete)

External links


 
Translations: Translations for: Martinet

Dansk (Danish)
n. - striks officer

Nederlands (Dutch)
iemand die precies volgens het boekje gaat, iemand die strenge discipline aanhangt (m.n. in leger)

Français (French)
n. - discipline stricte

Deutsch (German)
n. - Zuchtmeister

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - κέρβερος πειθαρχίας, στραβόξυλο, (μτφ.) χωροφύλακας

Italiano (Italian)
(ufficiale) intransigente

Português (Portuguese)
n. - militar (m)

Русский (Russian)
солдафон

Español (Spanish)
n. - jefe muy autoritario, ordenancista, sargento

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - tyrann, pedant

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
规律严肃的人, 严格的人

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 規律嚴肅的人, 嚴格的人

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 완고한 사람, 군인

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 訓練のきびしい人, 規律家, 厳格な人

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) صارم, حازم‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮קפדן, דורש משמעת‬


 
 

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
US Military Dictionary. The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. Copyright © 2001, 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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