-mastixcomb. form

Etymology: < classical Latin -mastix (post-classical Latin formations with which are very common in 16th-cent. polemic: see R. Hoven Lexique de la prose latine de la Renaissance (1994) at mastix) < Hellenistic Greek -μάστιξ (the earliest attested example is Ὁμηρομάστιξ scourge of Homer, a name given to the grammarian Zoilus on account of the severity of his censure of the Homeric poems) < ancient Greek μάστιξ whip, cognate with μαίεσθαι to seek. Compare mastix n.The earliest example appears to be musomastix n. (late 16th cent.), followed in the 17th cent. by compounds such as Papisto-mastix n., episcopomastix n., Infanto-mastix n., Puritano-mastix n., etc. The element was also used in the titles of books in which an idea, person, or class of persons is satirized or denounced, e.g. Thomas Dekker's play Satiro-mastix: Or the Untrussing of the Humorous Poet, supposedly an attack on Ben Jonson (published 1602), Bishop Martin Fotherby's Atheomastix: clearing Foure Truthes, against Atheists and Infidels (1622; he died in 1619), William Prynne's prose work Histriomastix: the Players Scourge, an attack on stage-plays (1632; a play called Histrio-mastix: Or, the Player Whipt, probably by John Marston, had appeared in 1610), Richard Richardson's Zoilomastix: or, a Vindication of Milton from all the Invidious Charges of W. Lauder (1747), and Francis Hodgson's poem Sæculo-Mastix, or the Lash of the Age we live In (1818). Nearly all of these are ad hoc formations; Hodgson's title is a very late example. The second element of uromastix n. is from the same ancient Greek word, but with a more literal sense.