different between derision vs ridicule

English

Etymology

From Old French derision, from Latin d?r?si?nem, accusative of d?r?si?, from d?r?d?re ("to mock, to laugh at, to deride").

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??????n/
• Rhymes: -???n

Noun

derision (countable and uncountable, plural derisions)

1. Act of treating with disdain.
2. Something to be derided; a laughing stock.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 14:

     Miss Briggs was not formally dismissed, but her place as companion was a sinecure and a derision […]

Related terms

• deride
• derider
• ridicule
• ridiculous
• ridiculosity

Translations

Further reading

• derision in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• derision in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Ironside, ironised, ironside, resinoid

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???d?kju?l/
• Hyphenation: rid?i?cule

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French ridicule, from Latin ridiculus (“laughable, comical, amusing, absurd, ridiculous”), from ridere (“to laugh”).

Verb

ridicule (third-person singular simple present ridicules, present participle ridiculing, simple past and past participle ridiculed)

1. (transitive) to criticize or disapprove of someone or something through scornful jocularity; to make fun of

Synonyms

• outlaugh

Translations

Noun

ridicule (countable and uncountable, plural ridicules)

1. derision; mocking or humiliating words or behaviour
   • 1738, Alexander Pope, Epilogue to the Satires: Dialogue II

     Safe from the Bar, the Pulpit, and the Throne, / Yet touch'd and sham'd by Ridicule alone.

2. An object of sport or laughter; a laughing stock.
   • 1857, Henry Thomas Buckle, History of Civilization in England

     [Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries.

   • 1563, John Foxe, Actes and Monuments

     To the people […] but a trifle, to the king but a ridicule.

3. The quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:ridicule

Related terms

• deride
• derision
• ridiculable
• ridiculous
• ridiculosity

Translations

See also

• humiliation

Adjective

ridicule (comparative more ridicule, superlative most ridicule)

1. (obsolete) ridiculous
   • late 17th century, John Aubrey, Brief Lives

     This action […] became so ridicule.

Etymology 2

From French ridicule, probably jocular alteration of réticule.

Noun

ridicule (plural ridicules)

1. (now historical) A small woman's handbag; a reticule. [from 18th c.]
   • c. 1825, Frances Burney, Journals and Letters, Penguin 2001, p. 455:

     I hastily drew my empty hand from my Ridicule.

   • 1838, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist:

     ‘Pockets, women's ridicules, houses, mailcoaches […] ,’ said Mr. Claypole.

Further reading

• ridicule in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ridicule in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ridiculus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?i.di.kyl/

Adjective

ridicule (plural ridicules)

1. ridiculous (all meanings)

Derived terms

Further reading

• “ridicule” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Latin

Etymology

From r?diculus (“laughable; ridiculous”), from r?de? (“to laugh; mock”).

Adverb

r?dicul? (comparative r?diculius, superlative r?diculissim?)

1. laughably, amusingly
2. absurdly, ridiculously

Synonyms

• perr?dicul?

References

• ridicule in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ridicule in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ridicule in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette