derision

See also: dérision

English

Etymology

From Old French derision, from Latin dērīsiōnem, accusative of dērīsiō, from dērīdēre ("to mock, to laugh at, to deride").

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈɹɪʒən/

• Audio (Berkshire)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪʒən

Noun

derision (countable and uncountable, plural derisions)

1. Act of treating with disdain.
   • 1969, Mario Puzo, The Godfather:

     There was just a touch of derision in the Don's voice and Hagen flushed.

   • 2011 December 15, Felicity Cloake, “How to cook the perfect nut roast”, in Guardian‎^[1]:

     One of the darlings of the early vegetarian movement (particularly in its even sadder form, the cutlet), it was on the menu at John Harvey Kellogg's Battle Creek Sanitarium [sic], and has since become the default Sunday option for vegetarians – and a default source of derision for everyone else.

2. Something to be derided; a laughing stock.
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 14, in Vanity Fair. A Novel without a Hero, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, OCLC 3174108:

     Miss Briggs was not formally dismissed, but her place as companion was a sinecure and a derision […]

Related terms

• deride
• derider
• ridicule
• ridiculous
• ridiculosity

Translations

act of treating with contempt

• Armenian: ծաղր (hy) (całr)
• Bulgarian: присмиване (bg) n (prismivane), осмиване (bg) n (osmivane)
• Czech: posměch m, výsměch (cs) m, zesměšnění n
• Finnish: iva (fi), pilkka (fi)
• French: dérision (fr)
• German: Hohn (de) m, Spott (de) m, Verhöhnung f, Verspottung (de) f, Gespött (de) n
• Greek:

  Ancient: κατάγελως m (katágelōs)

• Hungarian: kinevetés, kigúnyolás (hu), kicsúfolás, kikacagás, megmosolygás
• Italian: derisione (it) f

• Latin: dērīsiō f
• Macedonian: мунѕа f (mundza)
• Malayalam: പരിഹാസം (ml) (parihāsaṃ)
• Plautdietsch: Spott m
• Polish: wyszydzenie n, szyderstwo (pl) n
• Portuguese: menosprezo (pt) m
• Russian: высмеивание (ru) n (vysmeivanije), насме́шка (ru) f (nasméška), осмеяние (ru) n (osmejanije)
• Sanskrit: निद् (sa) f (nid)
• Spanish: irrisión (es) f
• Swedish: hån (sv), förlöjligande (sv)
• Telugu: ఎగతాళి (te) (egatāḷi)
• Turkish: alay (tr)
• Ukrainian: висміювання n (vysmijuvannja), насміхання n (nasmixannja), глузування n (hluzuvannja)

Further reading

• “derision” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “derision” in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Ironside, ironised, ironside, resinoid