Bartleby

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The title character of Herman Melville's story, who calmly declines every task he is asked to do ; a masculine first name of English origin
2. A figure from Melville's short story who quietly refuses all instructions and duties ; a traditional male personal name given to children
3. Someone who steadfastly and passively refuses to cooperate, named after a clerk in a famous Melville tale ; a masculine forename

Etymology: Herman Melville's 1853 story "Bartleby, the Scrivener" introduces a copyist in a Wall Street law office who, when asked to do anything beyond his work, calmly replies, "I would prefer not to." The phrase became so attached to him that his name stopped being a mere character's name and turned into a general label for anyone who quietly and stubbornly refuses to take part. The name itself was not Melville's invention in the sense of being unusual; "Bartleby" is a forename that appears as a surname in English. What Melville did was attach it to a figure of passive, unmovable resistance, and readers and critics took the name with them. The word now works as a common noun: a person who will not cooperate, not through open defiance but through polite, immovable refusal.