facetious
English edit
Etymology edit
From French facétieux, from Latin facētia (“jest, wit, humor”), from facētus (“witty, jocose, facetious”).
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
facetious (comparative more facetious, superlative most facetious)
- Treating serious issues with (often deliberately) inappropriate humour; flippant.
- Robbie's joke about Heather's appearance was just him being facetious.
- 1951 October, “Notes and News: The Harmonium at Troutbeck”, in Railway Magazine, page 709:
- Troutbeck is a tiny village midway between Penrith and Keswick in a very sparsely populated part of Cumberland, and it used to be said by facetious travellers that the reason why it ever had a station at all was to give the engine a rest after it had struggled up the long and trying incline from Threlkeld.
- 2017 October 2, Jess Cartner-Morle, “Stella McCartney lays waste to disposable fashion in Paris”, in the Guardian[1]:
- Glamour for its own sake is not something I have ever been particularly interested in,” Stella McCartney said backstage after her catwalk show. Which could sound like a facetious statement from a fashion designer who was, at that moment, standing among the marble-slabbed floors, elaborately frescoed ceilings and giant chandeliers of the Palais Garnier opera house, where the show was staged.
- Pleasantly humorous; jocular.
- (Of an idea or statement) humorously silly or counterproductive for the purpose of sarcastically advocating the opposite.
Synonyms edit
- See also Thesaurus:witty
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
flippant
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pleasantly humorous, jocular
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Further reading edit
- “facetious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “facetious”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “facetious”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.