drôle

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French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Inherited from Middle French drolle (“a merry fellow, pleasant rascal”) from Old French drolle (“one who lives luxuriously”), from Middle Dutch drol (“fat little man, goblin”) from Old Norse trǫll (“giant, troll”) (compare Middle High German trolle (“clown”)), from Proto-Germanic *truzlą (“creature which walks clumsily”), from *truzlaną (“to walk with short steps”). More at troll.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

drôle (plural drôles)

  1. funny, amusing
    Synonyms: comique; désopilant; marrant; rigolo (informal); poilant (France, informal); crampant (Quebec, informal); fendard (France, slang)
    On a beaucoup ri, il est vraiment très drôle.
    We laughed a lot, he was really so funny.
  2. (sometimes with "de") strange, weird, bizarre
    • 1882, Guy de Maupassant, Madame Baptiste:
      C’est drôle, mais c’est comme ça...
      It's weird, but that's how it is...
    • 1901, Adolphe Orain, Contes de l’Ille-et-Vilaine, page 207:
      C’était un bien drôle de petit homme que le père Langevin, tailleur et porteur de contraintes au Grand-Fougeray.
      He was quite an odd little man, that Father Langevin, mason and "porteur de contraintes" in Grand-Fougeray
    • 1977, “Dix ans plus tôt”, performed by Michel Sardou:
      Tu voulais m’épouser, quelle drôle d’idée, tu n’avais pas 15 ans
      You wanted to marry me, what an odd idea, you were only fifteen

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • Louisiana Creole: drol, dròl
  • → English: droll
  • ⇒ Esperanto: drola

Noun[edit]

drôle m (plural drôles, feminine drôlesse or drôlière)

  1. (archaic) rascal, scoundrel
    • 1845, Arthur Dumas, La Reine Margot:
      […] et puis, je me suis un peu détourné de la ligne droite pour aller jeter à la rivière un affreux enfant qui criait : À bas les papistes, vive l’amiral ! Malheureusement, je crois que le drôle savait nager.
      […] and then, I went a little off the straight part of the road to hurl a repulsive child who was shouting "Down with the papists, long live the admiral!" into the river. Unfortunately, I believe that the rascal could swim.
  2. (southern France, endearing) child, kid, lad
    • 1969, François Mauriac, Un adolescent d’autrefois, Flammarion, page 284:
      Qu’est-ce que tu en sais, mon pauvre drôle ?
      What do you know about it, my poor little thing?

See also[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

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