facetious

English

WOTD – 6 April 2016

Etymology

From French facétieux, from Latin facētia (“jest, wit, humor”), from facētus (“witty, jocose, facetious”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fəˈsiːʃəs/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːʃəs
• Hyphenation: fa‧ce‧tious

Adjective

facetious (comparative more facetious, superlative most facetious)

1. Treating serious issues with (often deliberately) inappropriate humour; flippant.

   Robbie's joke about Heather's appearance was just him being facetious.

   • 2017 October 2, Jess Cartner-Morle, “Stella McCartney lays waste to disposable fashion in Paris”, in the Guardian‎^[1]:

     Glamour for its own sake is not something I have ever been particularly interested in,” Stella McCartney said backstage after her catwalk show. Which could sound like a facetious statement from a fashion designer who was, at that moment, standing among the marble-slabbed floors, elaborately frescoed ceilings and giant chandeliers of the Palais Garnier opera house, where the show was staged.

2. Pleasantly humorous; jocular.
3. Of an idea or statement, humorously silly or counterproductive for the purpose of sarcastically advocating the opposite.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:witty

Derived terms

• facetiously
• facetiousness
• semifacetious
• unfacetious

 

Translations

flippant

• Bulgarian: шеговит (bg) (šegovit), закачлив (bg) (zakačliv)
• Dutch: spottend (nl), spotterig
• Finnish: epäasiallinen, näsäviisas (fi)
• French: facétieux (fr)
• German: spöttisch (de), spöttelnd (de), sarkastisch (de)

• Icelandic: spaugsamur m, gamansamur m
• Italian: faceto (it)
• Russian: несерьёзный (ru) (neserʹjóznyj)
• Spanish: fisgón (es), socarrón (es)

pleasantly humorous, jocular

• Bulgarian: забавен (bg) (zabaven)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 轻率的, ^{(please verify)} 滑稽的

• Dutch: grappig (nl)
• Finnish: hyväntuulinen (fi), leikillinen (fi)
• French: facétieux (fr)
• German: spaßig (de), witzig (de), lustig (de), humorvoll (de)
• Greek: ευτράπελος (el) (eftrápelos)

• Hungarian: tréfálkozó (hu)
• Italian: faceto (it)
• Japanese: 剽軽 (ja) (hyōkin)
• Portuguese: faceto (pt)
• Russian: шутли́вый (ru) (šutlívyj), шу́точный (ru) (šútočnyj), заба́вный (ru) (zabávnyj)
• Spanish: faceto m (obsolete), gracioso (es) m
• Swedish: skämtsam (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Kyrgyz: ^{(please verify)} тамашалуу (ky) (tamaşaluu), ^{(please verify)} оюнкараак (ky) (oyunqaraaq)

Further reading

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