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 deliberately inappropriate humour; flippant.

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

2. Pleasantly humorous; jocular.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:witty

Derived terms

• facetiously
• facetiousness

Translations

flippant

• Bulgarian: шеговит (bg) (šegovit), закачлив (bg) (zakačliv)
• Dutch: spottend (nl), spotterig
• Finnish: epäasiallinen
• French: facétieux (fr)

• German: spöttisch (de), spöttelnd (de), sarkastisch (de)
• Icelandic: spaugsamur m, gamansamur m
• Italian: faceto (it)
• 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, 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
• Russian: шутли́вый (ru) (šutlívyj), шу́точный (ru) (šútočnyj), заба́вный (ru) (zabávnyj)
• Spanish: faceto 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) (oyunkaraak)

Further reading

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