drôle
French edit
Etymology edit
Inherited from Middle French drolle (“a merry fellow, pleasant rascal”) from Old French drolle (“one who lives luxuriously”), from Middle Dutch drol (“fat little man, goblin”) from Old Norse trǫll (“giant, troll”) (compare Middle High German trolle (“clown”)), from Proto-Germanic *truzlą (“creature which walks clumsily”), from *truzlaną (“to walk with short steps”). More at troll.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
drôle (plural drôles)
- funny, amusing
- (sometimes with "de") strange, weird, bizarre
- 1882, Guy de Maupassant, Madame Baptiste:
- C’est drôle, mais c’est comme ça...
- It's weird, but that's how it is...
- 1901, Adolphe Orain, Contes de l’Ille-et-Vilaine, page 207:
- C’était un bien drôle de petit homme que le père Langevin, tailleur et porteur de contraintes au Grand-Fougeray.
- He was quite an odd little man, that Father Langevin, mason and "porteur de contraintes" in Grand-Fougeray
- 1977, “Dix ans plus tôt”, performed by Michel Sardou:
- Tu voulais m’épouser, quelle drôle d’idée, tu n’avais pas 15 ans
- You wanted to marry me, what an odd idea, you were only fifteen
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
See also edit
Further reading edit
- “drôle”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.