different between comedy vs drollery

English

Alternative forms

• comedie (archaic, often affected as such for humorous effect)
• comœdie (obsolete)
• comœdy (archaic)

Etymology

First attested in 1374. From Old French comedie, from Latin c?moedia, from Ancient Greek ??????? (k?m?idía), from ????? (kômos, “revel, carousing”) + either ??? (?id?, “song”) or ?????? (aoidós, “singer, bard”), both from ????? (aeíd?, “I sing”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k?m?di/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?m?di/
• Hyphenation: com?e?dy

Noun

comedy (countable and uncountable, plural comedies)

1. (countable, historical) A choric song of celebration or revel, especially in Ancient Greece.
2. (countable) A light, amusing play with a happy ending.
3. (countable, Medieval Europe) A narrative poem with an agreeable ending (e.g., The Divine Comedy).
4. (countable, drama) A dramatic work that is light and humorous or satirical in tone.
5. (drama) The genre of such works.
6. (uncountable) Entertainment composed of jokes, satire, or humorous performance.

   Why would you be watching comedy when there are kids starving right now?

7. The art of composing comedy.
8. (countable) A humorous event.

Antonyms

• drama
• tragedy

Derived terms

Related terms

• comic
• ode

Translations

References

• comedy in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• comedy at OneLook Dictionary Search

English

Alternative forms

• drolerie (archaic)

Etymology

From French drôlerie, from drôle +? -erie; equivalent to droll +? -ery.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d???l??i/

Noun

drollery (countable and uncountable, plural drolleries)

1. Comical quality.
   • 1915, W.S. Maugham, Of Human Bondage, chapter 121:

     He found that Sally had a restrained, but keen, sense of the ridiculous, and she made remarks about the girls or the men who were set over them which amused him by their unexpected drollery.

2. Amusing behavior.
3. Something humorous, funny or comical.
4. (archaic) A puppet show; a comic play or entertainment; a comic picture; a caricature.
5. A joke; a funny story.
6. A small decorative image in the margin of an illuminated manuscript.

Translations

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “drollery”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN