Sarcastic vs Sardonic: Difference and Comparison

Sarcastic is purposely saying something contrary to what you mean, utilizing a specific manner of speaking to clarify what you’re doing. 

Sardonic humour is humour that is taunting or unfeeling. It doesn’t include mockery; however, it frequently does. 

Sarcastic and sardonic are two words that are fundamentally the same in importance, yet a distinction can be seen in their roots, nature, and utilization.

Key Takeaways

1. Sarcastic refers to using irony to mock or ridicule something, while sardonic refers to a mocking or cynical attitude.
2. Sarcastic comments are intended to be humorous, while sardonic comments are bitter or scornful.
3. Sarcastic remarks are more playful and lighthearted, while sardonic remarks tend to be more cutting and harsh.

Sarcastic vs Sardonic

The difference between sarcastic and sardonic is that being sarcastic frequently alludes to making sharp, harsh, cutting comments or insults to pass on scorn, while being sardonic alludes to being critical and comical despite affliction.

Comparison Table

Parameters of Comparison	Sarcastic	Sardonic
Meaning	Sarcastic can be characterized as using incongruity to ridicule or pass on disdain.	Sardonic is grimly mocking or cynical.
Irony	Sarcastic comments regularly contain incongruity.	sardonic doesn’t embroil the utilization of incongruity
Cynicism	Sarcastic isn’t utilized to allude to something/someone negative.	Sardonic is bound with a negative disposition.
Tone	Sarcastic doesn’t embroil a terrible (tragic or tenacious) tone; it is all the more regularly connected with humour.	Sardonic embroils a horrid, miserable, or anxious tone.
Aimed	It is focused on the other party	It can be aimed at the speaker himself

What is Sarcastic?

It is a comment which is intensely bound with incongruity. Even though incongruity and mockery are not something very similar, the sarcastic comments have incongruity included. 

That is, the significance of what is being said is inverse of what it is planned to mean. 

It alludes to the expectation of somebody tormenting or disparaging somebody by saying something terrible, and its primary element is reversal.

For instance, The joke was clever that individuals chose to keep a straight face. 

The word began from the Greek word “sarcasm”, which signified “to jeer” or, in a real sense “, tearing of tissue.” None of the implications alluded to anything charming.

They all alluded to obnoxiousness caused to one another by somebody. It was recorded without precedent for 1579 in English in “The Shepheardes calendar .”

Usage

Sarcastic comments or mockery can be utilized straightforwardly or in a roundabout way to show hatred for somebody.

For instance, “You could not add two in addition to two on the off chance that you had the entire class causing you.” For instance, it can be utilized by implication, “What a mathematician you have become!” 

What is Sardonic?

Sardonic comments allude to jokes, pessimism, disparagement, and hatred. One of the primary highlights of this word is it is now and then thought about humour in the hours of misfortune.

For instance, The food detainees get acceptable to the point that they barely bite it. It includes extremely severe sentiments said with scorn. 

Something else about a sardonic comment is it may very well be focused on yourself. For instance, I am so accepting of making quips that individuals cry when they hear them.

It additionally communicates pomposity and a mentality that demonstrates prevalence. 

It started from the Greek word “sardonic”, signifying “severe or derisive grins or chuckling.” It is regularly viewed as humour notwithstanding misfortune.

Not long before death, the face shook into a demeanour taking after a smile or giggling.  It first showed up quite a while as a root structure in Homer.

Odysseus, sardonically grinning, is assaulted by one of the admirers of his significant other.

Usage 

It communicates criticism, scorn, and incredulous humour by composing, remarking, or a specific motion.

It is utilized to offend someone. Humour and paradox are included, yet principally it is humour during affliction.

Main Differences Between Sarcastic and Sardonic

1. Sarcastic articulations are prevalently passed on as words, regardless of whether they are joined by various methods, including outward appearances, motions, and changes in speaking to underline their importance. On the other hand, Sardonic articulations, then again, can be applied to an assortment of means. Aside from sardonic verbal looks, there can be “a sardonic face,” “sardonic giggling,” “sardonic grin,” and so on 
2. While sarcastic articulations plan to hurt another person, sardonic articulations can be coordinated with the speaker himself. Think about the accompanying model: Someone realizes he cooks awfully. If his companion tells him: “Seems like you have a great deal of food left since no one can eat it.” This will comprise mockery. On the off chance that the cook says, “Seems like my food is excessively delicious for anyone to like it; it is constantly left finished.” This would comprise a sardonic articulation. 
3. Sarcastic articulations are immediate and obtuse; they don’t need a lot of analysis or mind; however, they are concentrated articulations of affront. Sardonic articulations, then again, are regularly made after some investigation has been made, which brought about a harsh yield. In that capacity, they are regularly critical. Numerous self-destruction notes incorporate a type of biting articulation.
4. Sardonic humour is deriding, yet not sarcastic; mockery expresses a counterfactual, though sardonic is a snapshot of terrible, beautiful humour and could conceal counterfactuals. 
5. Sardonic is truth be told particularly from sarcasm, but just barely, and numerous individuals utilize the two as though they are compatible, which they are most certainly not. Sardonic is more outrageous and negative, and one can be sarcastic without being sardonic and the other way around.

References

1. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/089124190019001005
2. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Goe7ncVVHBIC&oi=fnd&pg=PR17&dq=sarcastic+and+sardonic&ots=72fY65_GEc&sig=uiki6lRsNkB4qFICsWbWs6K5xJE

Last Updated : 11 June, 2023