droll

English

Etymology

From French drôle (“comical, odd, funny”), from drôle (“buffoon”) 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 (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old Norse troll (“giant, troll”) (compare Middle High German trolle (“clown”)), from Proto-Germanic *truzlą (“creature which walks clumsily”), from *truzlaną (“to walk with short steps”). See further at troll.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɹəʊl/
• IPA^(key): /dɹoʊl/
• Rhymes: -əʊl

Adjective

droll (comparative droller, superlative drollest)

1. Oddly humorous; whimsical, amusing in a quaint way; waggish.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:witty

Derived terms

• drollery
• drollness
• drolly

Translations

oddly humorous; whimsical

• Bulgarian: смешен (bg) (smešen), комичен (bg) (komičen)
• Catalan: estranyament divertit (ca) m
• Finnish: hassunkurinen, lystikäs (fi)
• French: fantaisiste (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Galician: garoufeiro m
• German: drollig (de)
• Ido: fantaziema (io)
• Irish: áiféiseach
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} extrañamente divertido

Noun

droll (plural drolls)

1. (archaic) A buffoon.
   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: The Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 294:

     Our two inimitable drolls did a roaring trade with their broadsheets among lovers of the comedy element and nobody who has a corner in his heart for real Irish fun without vulgarity will grudge them their hardearned pennies.

Verb

droll (third-person singular simple present drolls, present participle drolling, simple past and past participle drolled)

1. (archaic) To jest, to joke.
   • 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Flight in the Heather: The Heugh of Corrynakeigh”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 205:

     "Eh, man," said I, drolling with him a little, "you're very ingenious! But would it not be simpler for you to write him a few words in black and white?" / "And that is an excellent observe, Mr. Balfour of Shaws," says Alan, drolling with me; [...]

Anagrams

• roll'd

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Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /trɔtl/
• Rhymes: -ɔtl

Noun

droll n (genitive singular drolls, no plural)

1. dawdling, loitering

Related terms

• drolla