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jocular

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Etymology and origin of the English word jocular

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈd͡ʒɒkjʊlə/[1]
  • US: /ˈd͡ʒɑkjəlɚ/[1]

jocular1 jester

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1475 before 1475, translation of Higden's Polychronicon
Borrowed from
Old French joculer via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Old French jougler

Etymology

The word for the jester is inherited from Middle English joculer,[2][3] borrowed from Old French joculer,[3][4][5] which the OED and the Shorter Oxford explain as an altered form, after Latin, of jougler, also jougleur, the source of juggler.[3][4] The Middle English Dictionary and Barnhart trace it to Medieval Latin joculāris instead, Barnhart through the Old French form.[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A jester or minstrel: perhaps before 1475, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon (Harley manuscript), where the word stands for Latin histriones and Alfred comes in disguise in the manner of a joculer.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word kept the one sense of a professional entertainer until it went out of use in the early 19th century.[3][4] The Middle English Dictionary adds, with a query, the sense "actor".[2] Barnhart stresses that it has a similar form to the adjective jocular but an unrelated use.[5]

Timeline

  • before 1475 – a professional jester or minstrel.[3][2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (obsolete, before 1475–1806) A professional jester or minstrel.[3][4][2]

jocular2 joking

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1625 Ben Jonson, The Fortunate Isles
Borrowed from
Latin iocularis
Ultimate origin
Latin iocus
Etymology tree of jocular2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin ioculāris
English jocular

Etymology

The word for the joking adjective is borrowed from Latin ioculāris (“funny, comic, facetious”),[3][6][5][7][8] from ioculus (“a little joke”), a diminutive of iocus (“joke, jest; pastime”),[3][6][5][7][9] the source of joke.[4][5][10] Dictionary.com analyses the Latin adjective as that diminutive with the suffix -āris.[11] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary take that noun back to Proto-Indo-European *yek- (“to speak”).[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person or a person's disposition, given to joking or jesting: 1625, in Ben Jonson's masque The Fortunate Isles.[3] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date the same first use to 1626,[5][9] and Etymonline to the 1620s.[6]

Semantic evolution

From people the word spread to what they say and do, so that by 1674, in The Government of the Tongue, a remark or an action could be jocular in itself.[3][12] Johnson (1755) quoted that work and defined the word as "used in jest; merry; jocose; waggish; not serious".[12] Etymonline notes that it often implies dodging an issue by making a joke of it.[6] Collins likewise records the shade "meant lightly; facetious".[13]

Timeline

  • 1625 – of people, disposed to joking.[3]
  • 1674 – of speech or action, said or done in joke.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Given to joking; in a merry, playful mood: The guide grew jocular on the way back to the bus.[9][13][3]
  2. Said or done as a joke; humorous or facetious: a jocular reply to a serious question.[13][9][3]

Word family

  • jocularity
  • jocularly
  • overjocular

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Jocular.” Etymologically, 6 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/jocular. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

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