ludicrous

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin lūdicrus (“sportive, done in sport”) with the suffix -ous.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Latin adjective seems to have grown out of the noun lūdicrum (“sportive performance, stage play, source of amusement”),^[2][7][3][8] from lūdō (“to play”),^[2][4][3] the verb related to lūdus (“game, play”);^[4][5][9] Klein calls lūdicrus a secondary form of lūdicer.^[9][8] Latin lūdicrus is also the source of Old French ludicre.^[4] The verb and lūdus go back to Proto-Indo-European *leid- (“to play”),^[4][5][3] which Etymonline, following de Vaan, explains as perhaps "to let go frequently", and connects with Old Irish laidid (“impels”), Albanian lind (“gives birth”), Lithuanian leisti (“to let”) and Latvian laist (“to let, set in motion”).^[4] Barnhart and Klein compare Ancient Greek λοίδορος (loídoros, “abusive, insulting”),^[3][9][10] for whose sense Klein compares the history of German Schimpf (“disgrace, insult”), earlier "joke, amusement".^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Having to do with play or sport; sportive, done in jest: 1619, in T. Gataker's Of the Nature and Use of Lots,^[2][3] in the 1610s in Etymonline.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The first senses were close to the Latin: "sportive, jocular", then from 1687 "given to jesting, frivolous" or, more kindly, "witty, humorous";^[2][11] both are now obsolete, the first after 1781, the second after 1827.^[2] Johnson (1755) still gave "burlesque; merry; sportive; exciting laughter".^[12] The current sense, "so absurd as to invite laughter or scorn", is first recorded in 1782, in Frances Burney's Cecilia,^[2][3][4] and Hoad dates "ridiculous" to the 18th century.^[11] Merriam-Webster keeps the older sense as archaic.^[10] Ayto lists ludicrous among the English words from Latin lūdere, with allusion, delusion, elude and illusion.^[13]

Timeline

• 1619 – pertaining to play or sport; jocular (obsolete after 1781).^[2][3][10]
• 1687 – given to jesting; frivolous, witty (obsolete after 1827).^[2]
• 1782 – ridiculous, laughably absurd.^[2][3][4]
• 1798 – used as a noun, the ludicrous.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. So absurd or incongruous that it provokes laughter or ridicule; ridiculous: The plan to drain the lake with buckets was ludicrous.^[6][10][2]
2. Deserving scorn as foolish or absurdly inept: a ludicrous excuse.^[10]
3. (archaic) Having to do with play or amusement; not serious, jocular.^[10][2]

Word family

• ludicrously
• ludicrousness
• unludicrous

Related words

• ludic
• allude
• collude
• delude
• elude
• illusion
• interlude
• prelude

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black