derision

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English derisioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French derision,^[5][6][7][8] from Late Latin dērīsiō (“a laughing to scorn, mockery”),^[7][2][6] from Latin dērīsus (“mocked”), past participle of dērīdeō (“to laugh to scorn”),^[2][3][9] formed from dē- (“down”) and rīdeō (“to laugh”).^[6] The Old French word is recorded from the 13th century,^[5][6] and the American Heritage Dictionary names Anglo-Norman derision as the immediate source;^[2] the Anglo-Norman noun is dated 1272–82.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of mocking or laughing to scorn: before 1400, in the Coventry Mysteries.^[5][11] Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com also put it in the 14th century,^[3][8] while Etymonline says about 1400^[6] and Barnhart probably about 1408, in Lydgate.^[12] The noun is older in English than the verb deride, which Barnhart dates to 1530 and Etymonline to the 1520s.^[12][6]

Semantic evolution

Set phrases with a preposition appear from 1477, in Caxton (in derision),^[5] and to hold in derision, to treat with scorn, from before 1513.^[5] Two further uses have their first records in English Bibles: an individual act of mocking, in Coverdale's Jeremiah (1535), and a person or thing mocked, a laughing-stock, in the Great Bible's Psalms (1539).^[5] Johnson (1755) records both "the act of deriding" and "contempt; scorn; a laughing-stock".^[13] The Shorter Oxford finds the concrete sense now rare except in Scots,^[7] and in Scotland the word also meant a practical joke or hoax, as in Galt's The Provost (1822).^[14]

Timeline

• before 1400 – ridicule, mockery.^[5]
• 1477 – in phrases such as in derision.^[5]
• before 1513 – to hold in derision, to treat with scorn.^[5]
• 1535 – an instance of mocking.^[5]
• 1539 – a person or thing mocked, a laughing-stock.^[5]
• 1822 – in Ayrshire, a practical joke or hoax.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. Scornful ridicule or mockery that shows contempt: Her proposal was met with derision from the back benches.^[2][3][15]
2. The state of being mocked, especially in the phrase hold in derision.^[2][3][7]
3. A person or thing that is mocked; a laughingstock, now rare except in Scots.^[3][15][7]

Related words

• deride
• ridicule
• ridiculous
• risible
• derisive
• derisory

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
12. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins