martinet means A strict disciplinarian. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 81 out of 100.
Why this word is great
MARTINET — [Noun] A strict disciplinarian who demands rigid adherence to rules and formal procedures. From the name of Jean Martinet, a 17th-century French army officer and Inspector General known for his severe and inflexible drilling methods. Unlike a 'taskmaster' (who focuses on the completion of work) or an 'authoritarian' (who demands broad obedience to power), the martinet is a curator of minutiae, defined by a liturgical devotion to procedural form over function. He is the clock that marks a tardiness of thirty-seven seconds, the conductor halting the symphony for a sheet of music two millimeters out of alignment, and the metronome-click of heels on a parade ground long after the war is over—a small god ruling a tiny, perfect, and airless world, where order, however hollow, is the last bastion against the chaos of human nature.
noun
- A strict disciplinarian.“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.”
- Anyone who lays stress on a rigid adherence to the details of discipline, or to forms and fixed methods or rules.“Before I met Mr. Bowen Cooke I had been given to understand that he was of a reserved nature, and on occasion could be a "bit of a martinet"; [...].”
- A short whip with multiple lashes once used in France.
- A martin; a swift.