risible

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Middle French risible (“laughable; capable of laughing”) and partly borrowed from Late Latin rīsibilis (“able to laugh; laughable”),^[2][3][4] though several dictionaries name only the Latin word.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} The Middle French word is recorded about 1370 as "laughable" and only in 1550 as "capable of laughing", while the Latin word has "capable of laughing" in the 4th century and "laughable" in the 5th.^[2] That adjective comes from Latin rīsus, the past participle of rīdeō (“to laugh”), with the suffix -ibilis.^[2][6][10] Etymonline quotes de Vaan's view that the verb "has no good PIE etymology",^[3] and Klein thought it probably cognate with an Old Indic verb meaning to be ashamed.^[11] The OED compares Italian risibile (1294), Spanish risible (16th century) and Portuguese risível (1692).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Having the power of laughing, inclined to laugh: 1557, in T. North's translation of Guevara's Diall of Princes.^[2][4][6]

Semantic evolution

The English word began with the sense "able or inclined to laugh", a quality that had been treated as defining humankind: Johnson (1755) quotes the Government of the Tongue on man's being "risible" by definition.^[12] A sense "relating to laughter, used in laughing" followed in 1671.^[2] The meaning now usual, "provoking laughter, laughable", is first recorded in English in 1727, in a letter by Lady M. W. Montagu,^[2][4][3] although the French and Latin words already had that sense.^[2] Johnson gave both senses.^[12] The Shorter Oxford marks the older sense "now rare".^[8] As a noun the word has meant the laughable aspect of something (the risible, 1754) and, chiefly in the United States, the faculties or muscles of laughter (risibles, 1785).^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1557 – able or inclined to laugh.^[2][6]
• 1671 – relating to laughter, used in laughing.^[2]
• 1727 – provoking laughter, ludicrous.^[2][4][3]
• 1754 – noun, with the: the laughable aspect of something.^[2]
• 1785 – noun, plural, chiefly American: the faculties or muscles of laughter.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Provoking laughter; laughable or ridiculous: The committee dismissed his excuse as risible.^[13][6][2]
2. Relating to or used in laughter.^[6][2][8]
3. (rare) Able or inclined to laugh.^{[8][13][6][2]}

Noun

1. (chiefly US) In the plural, the faculties or muscles of laughter.^[2][8]
2. With the, the laughable aspect of something.^[2]

Word family

• risibly
• risibility

Related words

• ridiculous
• deride
• derision
• riant
• arride

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ 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.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins