A.bitter or scornful smiles or laughter, “μείδησε δὲ θυμῷ σαρδάνιον μάλα τοῖον” Od.20.302; so “ἀνεκάγχασε μάλα σαρδάνιον” Pl.R.337a; “ὑπομειδιάσας σαρδάνιον” Plb. 18.7.6; “τί μάταια γελᾷς . . ; τάχα που σαρδάνιον γελάσεις” AP5.178 (Mel.); “πεφύλαξο σίνεσθαι, μὴ καὶ ς. γελάσῃς” APl.4.86; ridere “γέλωτα σαρδάνιον” Cic.Fam.7.25.1. (Perh. connected with σεσηρώς, grinning, sneering, Sch.Pl. l.c.; cf. σαρδάζων: μετὰ πικρίας γελῶν, Phot., Suid. —The common expl. given of this laugh was that it resembled the effect produced by a Sardinian plant (Ranunculus Sardoüs, Sardinian crowfoot, called σαρδάνη by Tz. ad Hes. Op.59, σαρδόνιον by Ps.-Dsc.2.175, D.Chr.32.99) which when eaten screwed up the face of the eater, Paus.10.17.13, Sch.Pl. l.c., Phot., Serv.ad Verg.Ecl.7.41; whence later authors wrote σαρδόνιον or σαρδώνιον (from Σαρδώ) for σαρδάνιον, Ps.-Dsc. l.c., D.Chr. l.c., Luc.Asin.24, etc., σαρδώνιος γέλως and “-ωνία πόα” Dsc.Alex.14, and σαρδόνιον appears as a v.l. in Hom. and Pl.; hence our form sardonic; this and other explanations are given in Timae.29, Zen.5.85, Tz.ad Lyc.796, Sch. Pl. l.c.)
σαρδάνιος [δα^], α, ον, an Adj. used of
Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940.
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