nonhero

[ non-heer-oh ]

noun

, plural non·he·roes.

1. antihero.

Word History and Origins

Origin of nonhero¹

First recorded in 1935–40; non- + hero

Example Sentences

In “The Red Badge of Courage,” the novel that made Crane famous, at the age of twenty-three, the nonhero Henry Fleming desperately wants to be perceived as brave, even though he deserts in a moment of cowardice, and doesn’t really seem to believe in bravery except as a perception.

From The New Yorker

The Peanuts chronicle has become world famous, and its harried nonhero is beloved by all who follow his tribulations.

From Time Magazine Archive

If he has done nothing else, Erich Remarque has given to modern fiction a new sort of nonhero�the nameless and rootless refugee who is forever on the run.

From Time Magazine Archive

Then the novelist has fashionably provided her nonhero, Pryar-Lysander, with ambiguous sex but pretty much turned the genes of everybody else Bottom side up.

From Time Magazine Archive

Pryar himself, fashionably enough, is a nonhero.

From Time Magazine Archive