sb. and a. Forms: 4 pl. stoycis, 6 stoyck, 6–7 -icke, -ik(e, -yk(e, -ique, 6–8 stoick, 7– stoic. [ad. L. stōicus, a. Gr. στωῐκός, f. στοά ‘the Porch’ in which Zeno lectured: see STOA. Cf. F. stoïque, It. stoico.
Wyclif’s stoycis is L. stoici with an Eng. plural ending.]
A. sb.
1. One of a school of Greek philosophers (founded by Zeno, fl. c. 300 B.C.), characterized by the austerity of its ethical doctrines for some of which the name has become proverbial (see 2).
1382. Wyclif, Acts xvii. 18. Forsothe summe Epicureis, and Stoycis [1388 Stoisens], and philosofris disputiden … with him.
1575. Gascoigne, Glasse Govt., Wks. 1910, II. 18. Aristo the Stoicke.
1589. Nashe, Anat. Absurd., C 1 b. It is an old Question,… whether it were better to haue moderate affections, or no affections? The Stoicks said none.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Anger (Arb.), 565. To seeke to extinguish Anger vtterly, is but a Brauery of the Stoickes.
1671. Milton, P. R., IV. 280. With those Sirnam’d Peripatetics, and the Sect Epicurcan, and the Stoic severe.
1725. Watts, Logic (1822), 86. The Stoics … talk of fate, which is superior to the gods.
1837–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit. (1847), III. 11. Testi had taken … Horace for his model; and perhaps like him he wished to appear sometimes a stoic, sometimes an epicurean.
attrib. 1725. Young, Love Fame, I. 233. Fools grin on fools, and Stoic-like, support, Without one sigh, the pleasures of a court.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, lx. And, therefore, Stoic-fashion, men must accustom themselves to regard all calamities as matters of indifference.
2. One who practises repression of emotion, indifference to pleasure or pain, and patient endurance.
1579. Gosson, Sch. Abuse (Arb.), 45. I make iuste reckoning to bee helde for a Stoike, in dealing so hardely with these people.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. i. 31. Onely (good master) while we do admire This vertue, and this morall discipline, Let’s be no Stoickes, nor no stockes I pray.
1599. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., I. i. But Stoique; where (in the vast worlde) Doth that man breath, that can so much command His bloud and his affection?
1657. Trapp, Comm. Job i. 20. He stirreth not at the three first doleful tidings, but this fourth startleth him; for he was neither a Stoick, nor a stock.
1726. Swift, Stella’s Birthday, 50. That patience under tort’ring pain, Where stubborn stoicks wou’d complain.
1771. Burke, Let. Bp. Chester, Corr. (1844), I. 278. In some few things, I fancy I am grown almost a stoic; but your lordship’s unkindness has attacked me on a side on which I was absolutely unguarded, and I bear it like a girl.
1809. Campbell, Gertrude, I. xxiii. A stoic of the woods—a man without a tear.
1812. Scott, in Sotheran’s Catal., No. 12 (1899), 48. I am somewhat of a Stoic in family discipline, which was the old Scottish system.
1854. J. S. C. Abbott, Napoleon (1855), I. i. 23. Stoic as he was, his stoicism then forsook him, and he wept like a child.
1855. Tennyson, Maud, I. IV. iv. I … smile a hard-set smile, like a stoic, or like A wiser epicurean, and let the world have its way.
B. adj.
1. Of or belonging to the school of the Stoics or to its system of philosophy.
1607. T. Rogers, 39 Art., i. (1625), 5. The Stoike Philosophers.
1634. Milton, Comus, 707. O foolishnes of men! that lend their ears To those budge doctors of the Stoick Furr.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 397, ¶ 1. As the Stoick Philosophers discard all Passions in general, they will not allow [etc.].
1817. Scott, Rob Roy, xii. No Stoic philosopher, superior to his own passion and that of others, could have received an insult with a higher degree of scorn.
1848. Lytton, Harold, X. ii. Harold’s stern philosophy and stoic ethics were shaken to the dust.
2. = STOICAL a. 2.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., IV. Prol. iii. The which these Stoicke censours cannot well deny.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., III. 433. Yet far was he from stoic pride removed; He felt humanely, and he warmly loved.
1813. Byron, Corsair, III. xxi. Full many a stoic eye and aspect stern Mask hearts where grief hath little left to learn.
1849. M. Arnold, To Gipsy Child, 29. Is the calm thine of stoic souls, who weigh Life well, and find it wanting…?
1913. Mrs. F. H. Burnett, T. Tembarom, x. The same factor may … have aided him to preserve a certain stoic, outward composure.
Hence † Stoicly adv. (rare) = STOICALLY.
1612. W. Martyn, Youth’s Instruct., 69. In your pleasures, not to be wanton, nor Stoickly to passe by them.
