infracaninophile

infracaninophile

English

Etymology

Pseudo-Latin plus a suffix, from infra- +‎ canine +‎ -phile. An early twentieth-century coinage by American writer Christopher Morley.

Noun

infracaninophile (plural infracaninophiles)

1. A person who loves or admires underdogs.
   • 1940, Michael J. Bradley, National Labor Relations Act: hearings before the Special Committee to Investigate National Labor Relations Board, Volume 29, page 7775:

     But I do quarrel with those who under the guise of friendship for labor assume the role of infracaninophiles and then proceed to sabotage everything that means anything to labor.

   • 1976, Samuel Krislov, Representative Bureaucracy, Prentice-Hall, page 46:

     'A lover of the upper-dog', as distinguished from today's infracaninophiles.

   • 2007, Ulric Neisser, "Ulric Neisser", in Gardner Lindzey and William McKinley Runyan, eds., A History of Psychology in Autobiography, American Psychological Association, Volume 9, page 276:

     I was already a committed infracaninophile, and Gestalt psychology was clearly the underdog in a department that included B. F. Skinner.

References

• Elster, Charles Harrington. There's a Word for It!: A Grandiloquent Guide to Life, Gallery Books, 1997.