Etymologically
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mockery

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈmɒkəɹi/[1]
  • US: /ˈmɑkəɹi/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English moquerie, also mokkerie,[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman mokerie and Middle French mocquerie, also moquerie,[5][3][6] formed from moquer (“to mock”) and the suffix -erie,[5][7][8] the source of mock and -ery.[5][7] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from about 1280–1307,[9] and in Old French it already meant mocking speech, the habit of mocking others and something absurd.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Derision, ridicule; a mocking word or act: about 1439, in John Lydgate's Fall of Princes.[5] Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century, with the senses of scorn and of a sham or pretence.[3]

Semantic evolution

By 1500 a mockery was also a person or thing that deserves ridicule, a laughing stock.[5] Etymonline notes that from the mid-15th century the word was also used of joking and playful pleasantries.[3] The phrase to make a mockery of, to make something seem foolish, appears in the epigrams of John Davies and Christopher Marlowe, about 1599.[5][6] Shakespeare used it for a futile, absurdly unsuitable gesture (Hamlet, 1603), a sense now obsolete, and in Henry V for imitation or counterfeit representation,[5] which now usually means an outrageous travesty, as in a mockery of justice.[5][4] Johnson (1755) defined it as derision, scorn and sportive insult.[10] In the 16th and 17th centuries mockage was a common rival word.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1439 – derision, ridicule; a mocking utterance or act.[5]
  • before 1500 – an object of derision, a laughing stock.[5]
  • c. 1599 – to make a mockery of.[5]
  • 1603 – a ludicrously futile or unsuitable action (obsolete by 1883).[5]
  • before 1616 – imitation; a counterfeit representation, a travesty.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Contemptuous or insulting words or actions; ridicule, derision: The new uniforms drew mockery from the crowd.[4][11][5]
  2. A person or thing that is mocked; a laughing stock.[4][11][5]
  3. A false or absurd imitation; a travesty: The hearing was a mockery of a fair trial.[4][11][5]
  4. make a mockery of: to make something appear foolish or worthless.[11][5]
  5. Something so inadequate that it seems absurd.[11][4]

Word family

  • self-mockery
  • mock
  • mocker
  • mockingbird

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins