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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.]


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Roget's Thesaurus:

martinet

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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

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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.

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Random House Word Menu:

categories related to 'martinet'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to martinet, see:

  See crossword solutions for the clue Martinet.

The martinet is a punitive device traditionally used in France and other parts of Europe. The word also has other usages (see below). It is also a term for a type of hammer in French, a diminutive of marteau (Latin martulus), "hammer".

Contents

Object

A simple, small martinet

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, so that the children did not have to disrobe. Otherwise it was usually applied on the bare buttocks, adding humiliation to the physical pain, like the English and Commonwealth caning, birching, naval boy's pussy, American paddling, et cetera.

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. Some supermarkets in Spain still sell martinets.

  • 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). Jean Bodin, quoting the examination of three witches by Paolo Grillandi of Castiglione at the Castello San Paolo, Spoleto, records that the witches referred to the Devil as Master Martinet (maistre Martinet), or the Little Master (petit maistre).

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 and thus would be etymologically only by accident related to the earlier sense.
  • In an extended sense, a martinet is any person for whom a strict adherence to rules and etiquette is paramount: martinets often use etiquette and other rules as an excuse to trump ethics, to the point that etiquette loses its ethical ground. The Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was famously described as a "strutting martinet" by Time in 1977.[1]

References

  1. ^ "Amin:The Wild Man of Africa", Time Magazine, 28 February 1977

External links


Translations:

Martinet

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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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