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Sardonicism is form of wit or humour, where being sardonic often involves expressing an uncomfortable truth in a clever and not necessarily malicious way, often with a degree of distrust or skepticism; or behavior contempt, cynically humorous, frequently based on scornful mockery. This gave birth to a literary genre emphasizing the behavior.
One explanation for the later alteration to its more familiar form and connection to laughter (supported by the Oxford English Dictionary) appears to stem from an ancient belief that ingesting the sardonion (σαρδόνιον) plant from Sardinia (Σαρδώ) would result in convulsions resembling laughter and, ultimately, death. In Theory and History of Folklore, Vladimir Propp discusses alleged examples of ritual laughter accompanying death and killing, all involving groups. These he characterized as sardonic laughter:
Among the very ancient Sardinians, who were called Sardi or Sardoni, it was customary to kill old people. While killing their old people, the Sardi laughed loudly. This is the origin of notorious sardonic laughter (Eugen Fehrle, 1930). In light of our findings things begin to look different. Laughter accompanies the passage from death to life; it creates life and accompanies birth. Consequently, laughter accompanying killing transforms death into a new birth, nullifies murder as such, and is an act of piety that transforms death into a new life.Vladimir Propp, Theory and History of Folklore: Ritual laughter in folklore, pp. 134-35. Anthology edited by Anatoly Liberman (1984).
A root form may first appear in Homer's Odyssey as the Ancient Greek sardánios, altered by influence of the word Sardonios (Σαρδονιος, "Sardinians"), originated from a Greek phrase which meant "to be sneered", "tearing of flesh" or for scornful laughter. From the sardónios evolved the , thence the , and ultimately the modern English adjectival form, sardonic. In the English vernacular, it was recorded and utilized in Edmund Spenser's The Shepheardes Calender (1579).
Convulsion facial muscles may cause a characteristic expression called Risus sardonicus (from the Latin for scornful laughter) or Risus caninus (from the Latin for doglike laughter or grinning). This facial expression has also been observed among patients with tetanus. Risus sardonicus causes a patient's eyebrows to rise, eyes to bulge, and mouth to retract dramatically, resulting in what has been described as an evil-looking grin. Holstege, C. et al., Criminal Poisoning: Clinical and Forensic Perspectives, by Christopher Holstege, Thomas Neer, Gregory Saathoff, and Brent Furbee, Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2010, p. 161.
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