funniment
English
editEtymology
editFrom funny + -ment, on model of merriment.[1]
Noun
editfunniment (countable and uncountable, plural funniments)
- Drollery, jesting, a funny saying or action.
- 1825, Oxberry’s Dramatic Biography and Histrionic Anecdotes, volume III, London: George Virtue, page 33:
- For the funniments of the fair, I confess I have little relish. Springing a rattle, I always deemed something too serious for a joke; and no nautical gentleman ever yet laughed at having his back scratched.
- 1846, The Pictorial Times, page 205:
- […]; and at some of Barry’s funniments the Prince of Wales and his royal sister laughed […]
- 1930, Harry Randall, Harry Randall, Old Time Comedian, page 136:
- His disguise as the Baron Mugwump also lent itself to much funniment.
- 1930, Harley Granville-Barker, “Love’s Labour’s Lost”, in Prefaces to Shakespeare:
- Therefore he has Berowne leave the stage first, lets Costard lag behind for a little solitary funniment, and then bolt after Berowne. If the funniment raises a laugh, that breaks contact, as it were, and continuity.
- 1990 September 11, Wally Trabing, “With humor there is life”, in Santa Cruz Sentinel, 134th year, number 219, Santa Cruz, Calif., page A-2:
- Mrs. Levine, mother of former Councilman Arnold Levine, totes around an array of jokes and general funniments.
References
edit- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “funniment”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.