lampoon

English

WOTD – 25 September 2011, 25 September 2012, 25 September 2013, 25 September 2014

Etymology

From French lampon (“satire, mockery, ridicule”), built on French lampons (“let us drink — a popular refrain for scurrilous songs”), from lamper (“to quaff, to swig”).

Littré quotes a satirical song mocking King Jacques II Stuart, fleeing Dublin, in 1691, and returning to France under the escort of Lauzun:

Prenez soin de ma couronne, J'aurai soin de ma personne ;
("Take care of my crown, I will take care of my person")
Lampons ! lampons !

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /læmˈpuːn/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

lampoon (plural lampoons)

1. A written attack or other work ridiculing a person, group, or institution; especially, a satirical one.
   • 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, I.i:

     To say truth, Ma'am, 'tis very vulgar to Print and as my little Productions are mostly Satires and Lampoons I find they circulate more by giving copies in confidence to the Friends of the Parties—

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Alteration”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 22:

     "Dangerous things, sir—dangerous things!" exclaimed Mr. Lintot, drawing a deep breath of air from the open window: "do you know, sir, Curl published a lampoon on Lord Hervey the other day, who said that he would have horsewhipped him if he could have found his way into the city...

Derived terms

• lampoonery
• lampoonish
• lampoonist
• lampoonry

Translations

written satirical attack

• Armenian: ծանակագիր (hy) (canakagir), պարսավագիր (hy) (parsavagir), պամֆլետ (hy) (pamflet)
• Bulgarian: пасквил (bg) m (paskvil)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 諷刺文 / 讽刺文 (zh) (fěngcìwén)

• Czech: pamflet (cs) m, hanopis (cs) m
• Finnish: pilkkakirjoitus, satiiri (fi)
• French: pasquin (fr) m
• German: Pamphlet (de) n, Schmähschrift (de) f, Spottschrift f
• Greek: σάτιρα (el) f (sátira), λίβελλος m (lívellos)
• Irish: aoir f
• Italian: libello (it) m, pasquillo
• Korean: 풍자문(諷刺文) (pungjamun)
• Macedonian: па́сквил m (páskvil)
• Polish: paszkwil (pl) m
• Portuguese: libelo (pt) m
• Russian: па́сквиль (ru) m (páskvilʹ), памфле́т (ru) m (pamflét), сати́ра (ru) f (satíra)
• Spanish: sátira (es) f, libelo (es) m, pasquín (es) m, vejamen (es)
• Swedish: pamflett (sv) c, smädeskrift (sv) c, nidskrift c, parodi (sv) c, satir (sv) c
• Ukrainian: па́сквіль m (páskvilʹ)

Verb

lampoon (third-person singular simple present lampoons, present participle lampooning, simple past and past participle lampooned)

1. (transitive) To satirize or poke fun at.

   Synonyms: diss, trash talk; jibe, kid; see also Thesaurus:defame, Thesaurus:mock

   • 2009 June 24, “this is your brain on X”, in The Snowclones Database‎^[1]:

     The original phrase was frequently lampooned in subsequent years, becoming strong enough in popular culture that the variations in place of ‘drugs’ probably didn’t take long to appear at all.

   • 2024 August 26, Stephen Collinson, “Trump’s personal attacks aren’t just who he is. They’re his strategy”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     Her tone shift involved former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton lampooning their fellow ex-president as a figure of ridicule. Then Harris closed the trap with a line in her convention speech: “Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences … of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.”

Derived terms

• lampoonable
• lampooner
• unlampooned

Translations

satirize — see satirize

Further reading

• “lampoon”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “lampoon”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.