laughable

Etymology

It is formed from English laugh + -able.^[2][3][4][5] Klein calls it a hybrid of the English verb and the suffix, first used by Shakespeare.^[6] Old English had expressed the idea with Old English hleahtorlīc (“ridiculous”),^[4][7] and Ben Jonson used laughworthy in the 1610s.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Able to be laughed at, amusing: in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, in Nestor's jest that would be "laughable".^[2][8] The 1989 edition of the OED and the Collegiate date it to 1596;^[9][10] the revised OED and Merriam-Webster Unabridged give 1600.^[2][11]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as "such as may properly excite laughter", quoting the Shakespeare line and Dryden's remark that Persius "was not a laughable writer".^[8] The OED notes that the main sense is now "ludicrous, absurd", deserving laughter in scorn rather than in fun.^[2][3] The adverb laughably is recorded from 1815,^[9] and the jocular laugh-at-able was coined in 1844.^[9]

Timeline

• 1596 – able to be laughed at, amusing, in Shakespeare.^[9][10] The revised OED dates the quotation to 1600.^[2]
• 1815 – the adverb laughably.^[9]
• 1844 – the nonce-word laugh-at-able.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. So absurd or inadequate as to deserve scorn; ludicrous: The firm made a laughable offer for the land.^[12][11][2]
2. Causing laughter; funny or comical.^[12][11][3]

Word family

• laughableness
• laughably

Related words

• laugh
• laughter

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster groups it with risible, droll, farcical, ridiculous and ludicrous, and describes laughable as the general word for whatever causes laughter, intended or not, whether kindly or mocking.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ 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.
9. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins