persiflate
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from French persifler, persiffler, or formed from persiflage + -ate.[1][2] Coined by British novelist William Makepeace Thackeray in 1850 (see quotation below).
Verb edit
persiflate (third-person singular simple present persiflates, present participle persiflating, simple past and past participle persiflated)
- (intransitive, transitive, rare) To engage in persiflage; to banter.
- 1850 August 21, William Makepeace Thackeray, edited by Gordon N[orton] Ray, The Letters and Private Papers of William Makepeace Thackeray, volume IV, Cambridge, M.A.: Harvard University Press, published 1946, page 425:
- We talked and persifflated all the way to London; and the idea of her will help me to a good chapter, in which I will make Pendennis and Blanche play at being in love, such a wicked false humbugging love, as two blase London People might act, and half deceive themselves that they were in earnest.
- 1961, Richard Usborne, Wodehouse at Work to the End, London: Barrie & Jenkins, published 1976, →ISBN, page 81:
- In later school stories you get Marriott and Jimmy Silver putting their feet up and simply persiflating.
- 1962, Leo Balet, Rembrandt and Spinoza, New York, N.Y.: Philosophical Library, page 174:
- We shall later see, that he used the Bible (Samson series) for his fight against his Philistine in-laws, and, according to Coppier, to persiflate Rabbi Saul Levi Mortiera, who had cursed Spinoza out of the temple.
Usage notes edit
- The term is much rarer than persiflage.
Related terms edit
References edit
- ^ “persiflate, v.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
- ^ “persiflate”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
