nonce-wd. [f. WIT sb. or WITTY a., after CRITICASTER.] A petty or inferior wit, a witling.
First in Latham’s Dict., 1872, where the following is quoted as from Milton on the authority of ‘Ord MS.’:—The mention of a nobleman seems quite sufficient to arouse the spleen of our witticaster. Hence in later Dicts.
1896. Punch, 30 May, 255/2.
| If, for example, one should call | |
| A wit a witticaster, | |
| And if the critics—race sublime— | |
| Would make an onslaught on my rhyme, | |
| In sheer contempt they write that I ’m | |
| The worst of poetasters; | |
| While I retort to trump their card, | |
| That I, as well befits a bard | |
| Reserve the right to disregard | |
| All drivelling criticasters. |
1902. Ozark (AL) Tribune, 2 Dec., 3/2. The witticasters had long since cut out the pumpkin.
1905. E. Sauter, Faithless Favorite, 217–8. A post-prandial witticaster of our own day could not be nastier at the orgies of a party of bankers.
1910. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 8/7. In not one [essay] does even the subject matter pertain to anything resembling the ideas which those old trusties of the witticaster indicate.
1913. The Scroll, 533. In their efforts to shine, the cut glass and silver were only outdone by the witticasters who were present.
