ridicule

Etymology

It is borrowed from French ridicule and directly borrowed from Latin rīdiculum (“a joke, a piece of humour”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} the noun use of the neuter of rīdiculus (“laughable, funny, absurd”),^[2][3][8][7] from rīdeō (“to laugh”) with the diminutive suffix -culus.^[2][9][10] The French noun is recorded from 1500–03 in the sense of a laughable feature, and since the mid 17th century as derision or an object of ridicule; the phrase tourner en ridicule (“to make a mockery of”) is found in the late 16th century.^[2] Barnhart thinks the borrowing was probably helped by the earlier English ridiculous, recorded from 1550.^[4] The verb is probably formed from the noun,^[2][7][11] perhaps reinforced by ridiculer, recorded from 1535.^[4][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A ridiculous thing or feature, an absurdity: before 1658, in James Durham's Blessednesse of Death.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the noun to 1667,^[5] Barnhart to 1677,^[4] and Etymonline to the 1670s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The earliest senses were concrete: an absurd thing (from before 1658, now obsolete) and an object of mockery, a laughing stock (1678, in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress).^[2][3] The phrase to turn into ridicule, to make a mockery of, is recorded from 1667.^[2] The modern sense, mocking words or behaviour, dates from 1675 in the OED and 1690 in Barnhart.^[2][4] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as wit of the kind that provokes laughter, quoting Pope and Swift.^[11] The verb first meant both to mock (1680) and, rarely, to make ridiculous (1684–1734).^[2][3][4] An adjective ridicule, ridiculous, had a short life in the late 17th century (1669–83),^[2] and Chapman had earlier used the verb ridiculize.^[3][2] In Ayrshire a ridicule was also a practical joke.^[12]

Timeline

• before 1658 – an absurd thing or feature (now obsolete).^[2]
• 1667 – to turn into ridicule.^[2]
• 1675 – mockery, derision.^[2] Barnhart dates this sense to 1690.^[4]
• 1678 – an object of derision, a laughing stock.^[2]
• 1680 – verb, to mock or make fun of.^[2][5]
• 1684 – verb, to make ridiculous (obsolete by 1734).^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Words or actions meant to make someone or something look foolish; mockery or derision: His proposal was met with open ridicule.^[9][5][2][7]
2. (archaic) A person or thing that is absurd or laughed at; a laughing stock.^[5][2][7]
3. (archaic) The quality of being ridiculous.^[5][2][7]

Verb

1. To make fun of; to mock or deride: The critics ridiculed the play's clumsy plot.^[9][5][2][7]
2. (obsolete, 1684–1734) To make ridiculous.^[2][7][3]

Word family

• ridiculer

Related words

• deride
• derision
• ridiculous
• risible
• reticule

Usage notes

A different ridicule, a woman's small handbag, from 1799, is a punning alteration of réticule, reticule, after this word;^[2][7][5] it later survived only in dialect,^[7][5] as in north Lincolnshire.^[12] Merriam-Webster distinguishes ridicule, a belittling that is often malicious, from deride, mock, taunt and twit.^[5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ 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.
12. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)