ridicule

Contents

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

Borrowing from French ridicule, from Latin ridiculus (“laughable, comical, amusing, absurd, ridiculous”), from ridere (“to laugh”).

PronunciationEdit

• Audio (US)

  (file)

VerbEdit

ridicule (third-person singular simple present ridicules, present participle ridiculing, simple past and past participle ridiculed)

1. (transitive) to criticize or disapprove of someone or something through scornful jocularity; to make fun of

   His older sibling constantly ridiculed him with sarcastic remarks.

SynonymsEdit

• outlaugh

TranslationsEdit

to make fun of someone

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 笑 (siu³)

  Mandarin: 嘲笑 (zh) (cháoxiào)

• Dutch: bespotten (nl)
• Estonian: naeruvääristama, pilkama
• Finnish: tehdä naurunalaiseksi, ivata (fi), pilkata (fi)
• German: verspotten (de)
• Gothic: 𐌱𐌹𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌷𐌾𐌰𐌽 (bihlahjan)
• Greek: περιγελώ (el) (perigeló), κοροϊδεύω (el) (koroïdévo)
• Italian: ridicolizzare
• Japanese: 嘲笑う (azawarau), 嘲笑する (chōshōsuru)

• Lithuanian: šaipytis
• Malay: memperlekeh
• Maori: tāwai, whakahahani, taunu
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: latterliggjøre

• Polish: wyśmiewać (pl)
• Portuguese: ridicularizar (pt)
• Romanian: a batjocori, a ridiculiza
• Russian: высме́ивать (ru) impf (vysméivatʹ), вы́смеять (ru) pf (výsmejatʹ), насмеха́ться (ru) impf (nasmexátʹsja)
• Spanish: burla (es) f
• Vietnamese: nhạo báng (vi), giễu cợt (vi), chế nhạo (vi)

NounEdit

ridicule (countable and uncountable, plural ridicules)

1. derision; mocking or humiliating words or behaviour
   • Alexander Pope

     Safe from the bar, the pulpit, and the throne, / Yet touched and shamed by ridicule alone.

2. An object of sport or laughter; a laughing stock.
   • Buckle

     [Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries.

   • Foxe

     To the people […] but a trifle, to the king but a ridicule.

3. The quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness.
   • Addison

     to see the ridicule of this practice

SynonymsEdit

• See also Wikisaurus:ridicule

Related termsEdit

• deride
• derision
• ridiculous
• ridiculosity

TranslationsEdit

derision

• Armenian: ծաղր (hy) (całr)
• Czech: výsměch (cs) m
• Hungarian: gúny (hu), nevetség (hu)

• Italian: derisione f
• Russian: насме́шка (ru) f (nasméška)

See alsoEdit

• humiliation

AdjectiveEdit

ridicule (comparative more ridicule, superlative most ridicule)

1. (obsolete) ridiculous

   This action […] became so ridicule. — Aubrey.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Further readingEdit

• ridicule in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• ridicule in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

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FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

Borrowing from Latin ridiculus.

PronunciationEdit

• Audio

  (file)

AdjectiveEdit

ridicule (plural ridicules)

1. ridiculous (all meanings)

Further readingEdit

• “ridicule” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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LatinEdit

EtymologyEdit

From rīdiculus (“laughable; ridiculous”), from rīdeō (“to laugh; mock”).

AdverbEdit

rīdiculē (comparative rīdiculius, superlative rīdiculissimē)

1. laughably, amusingly
2. absurdly, ridiculously

SynonymsEdit

• perrīdiculē

ReferencesEdit

• ridicule in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ridicule in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ridicule” in Félix Gaffiot’s Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette (1934)