anti-hero
(ˈæntɪˌhɪərəʊ)
[anti-1 1 b.]
One who is the opposite or reverse of a hero; esp. a chief character in a poem, play, or story who is totally unlike a conventional hero. So ˈanti-ˌheroine.
| 1714 Steele Lover (1720) 13 Every Anti-Heroe in Great Britain. 1897 W. P. Ker Epic & Romance iv. 346 The ineffectual sorrows and good intentions of the anti-hero Fromont. 1907 F. W. Chandler Lit. Roguery I. ii. 68 A work of the Eulenspiegel type..its anti-heroes remain less roguish than Till. Ibid. iv. 148 Other women figured as anti-heroines in less literary tracts. 1958 Listener 14 Aug. 248/3 Anti-heroes and unpleasant young men are now so morbidly the fashion. 1959 Sunday Times 27 Dec. 6/4 It was the decade of..the new, shambling, oafish anti-heroes, flotsam of the Welfare State—Lucky Jim and his first cousin Joe Lampton. 1962 Times 26 Jan. 16/5 Miss Wendy Baldwin presented a drab, vulgar anti-heroine. |
Hence anti-heˈroic a.
| 1876 E. Hopkins Rose Turq. I. i. 27 A lame and impotent conclusion..and altogether Anti-heroic. 1959 Times Lit. Suppl. 20 Nov. 670/4 Ulysses was and remains the first great masterpiece of anti-heroic literature. |