martinet

• IPA^(key): /ˈmæɹtɪnɛt/
• IPA^(key): /mæɹtˈnɛt/
• IPA^(key): /mɑɹtɪˈnɛt/
• Rhymes: -ɛt

After the example of 17th-century French army officer Jean Martinet.

martinet (plural martinets)

1. (military) A strict disciplinarian.
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0105:

     Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile ; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.

2. (figuratively) Anyone who lays stress on a rigid adherence to the details of discipline, or to forms and fixed methods or rules.

Borrowed from French martinet.

martinet (plural martinets)

1. A martin; a swift.

From marteau (“hammer”), from Latin martulus (“hammer”)

• IPA^(key): /maʁ.ti.nɛ/

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martinet m (plural martinets)

1. a multi-tail whip, comprising leather or whipcord thongs fixed on a handle, to dust off or to administer a beating (usually to a child's bottom)
2. a mechanical hammer on a motor-driven cogwheel, as used to beat metal
3. the swallow-like bird species martin, black with a white throat
4. swift (bird)

• “martinet” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• méritant, terminât