lampoon

Pronunciation

• IPA: /læmˈpuːn/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French lampon,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} a word of uncertain origin.^[3][4] It is said to come from lampons “let us drink”, a refrain of scurrilous drinking songs,^[2][3][4][6] from lamper “to guzzle”,^[2][3][4][6] a nasalized form of laper “to lap”, of Germanic origin and akin to English lap.^[4][6] Barnhart also allows a derivation from the French verb lamponner.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A virulent or scurrilous satire aimed at an individual.^[7][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Samuel Johnson defined it as censure written not to reform but to vex.^[4] The word has kept the sense of a harsh satirical attack,^[5][6] though the American Heritage Dictionary also records a lighter, good-humoured satire.^[2]

Timeline

• 1645 – noun;^[7][5][3] Etymonline gives the 1640s and RHWU 1635–45.^[4][6]
• before 1657 – verb;^[7][3] Merriam-Webster gives circa 1657.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A harsh satire ridiculing a person, group or institution.
2. A light, good-humoured satire.

Verb

1. To mock or satirize in, or as if in, a lampoon.

Word family

• lampooner
• lampoonery
• unlampooned

Related words

• satire
• pasquinade
• lap

Usage notes

Etymonline quotes the Century Dictionary (1895): a lampoon is perhaps more malicious and more directly meant to insult than a pasquinade, which is shorter and lighter.^[4]

References

1. [1] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. [1] [2] [3] [4] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. [1] [2] [3] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press