risible

English

WOTD – 15 May 2007

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] French risible. from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Late Latin rīsibilis, rīsus (“laughter”) + -ibilis, from the perfect passive participle of rīdeō (“laugh”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪzɪbəl/, /ˈɹaɪzəbəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

risible (comparative more risible, superlative most risible)

1. Of or pertaining to laughter

   the risible muscles

   • 1912, Arthur Quiller-Couch, Hocken and Hunken, ch. 20:

     A joke merely affected her with silent convulsive twitchings, as though the risible faculties struggled somewhere within her but could not bring the laugh to birth.

2. Provoking laughter; ludicrous; ridiculous; humorously insignificant
   • 1822, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 277:

     " […] I hope you find nothing risible in my complaisance?" replied his companion, something jealously.

3. (of a person) Easily laughing; prone to laughter
   • 1674, Anonymous [Richard Allestree?], “Of Scoffing and Deriſion”, in The Government of the Tongue‎^[1], At the Theater in Oxford, page 119:

     We are got indeed into a merry world, Laughing is our main buſiniſs; as if becauſe it has bin made part of the Definition of man, that he his Riſible, his man-hood conſiſted in nothing elſe.

   • 1897, Thomas Hardy, The Well-Beloved. ch. 8:

     She was half risible, half concerned.

Synonyms

• (provoking laughter): funny, laughable, ludicrous

Translations

pertaining to laughter

• German: Lach- (in composite words)
• Italian: risibile (it) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: śmiechowy
• Spanish: risible (es)

provoking laughter

• Finnish: naurettava (fi), hupaisa (fi), huvittava (fi)
• German: lachhaft
• Italian: risibile (it) m
• Polish: śmieszny (pl)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: risível (pt)
• Spanish: risible (es)
• Swedish: löjlig (sv), skrattretande (sv)

prone to laughter

• German: lachlustig
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: wesoły (pl)

Anagrams

• birlies

---

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin rīsibilis, from rīdeō (“to laugh”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁi.zibl/

Adjective

risible (plural risibles)

1. risible, laughable

Derived terms

• risiblement

Related terms

• rire

Further reading

• “risible”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

---

Spanish

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Late Latin rīsibilis, from rīdeō (“to laugh”)

Adjective

risible m or f (masculine and feminine plural risibles)

1. risible, laughable