mycterismn.

Etymology: < Hellenistic Greek μυκτηρισμός sneering, sarcasm ( > post-classical Latin mycterismos (4th cent.)) < μυκτηρίζειν to turn the nose up at, to sneer at ( < ancient Greek μυκτήρ nostril (see mucus n.), in Hellenistic Greek also sarcasm + -ίζειν -ize suffix) + -ισμός -ism suffix.The principal use of the word in English is as a technical term in rhetoric, and as such is after its use in Quintilian, who cites the word in its Greek form; it appears in Latin transliteration in a later grammarian. Compare the following Latin forms in English context:1550 R. Sherry Treat. Schemes & Tropes sig. Cvij^v Mycterismus. Subsannatio, a skornyng by some testure of the face, as by wrythinge the nose, putting out the tonge.1555 R. Sherry Treat. Figures Gram. & Rhetorike f. 26^v Myctirismus, a counterfayted laughter.1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie iii. xviii. 159 Or when we giue a mocke with a scornefull countenance as in some smiling sort looking aside or by drawing the lippe awry, or shrinking vp the nose; the Greeks called it Micterismus, we may terme it a fleering frumpe, as he that said to one whose wordes he beleued not, no doubt Sir of that. This fleering frumpe is one of the Courtly graces of hicke the scorner.