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 (often deliberately) inappropriate humour; flippant.

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

   • 1951 October, “Notes and News: The Harmonium at Troutbeck”, in Railway Magazine, page 709:

     Troutbeck is a tiny village midway between Penrith and Keswick in a very sparsely populated part of Cumberland, and it used to be said by facetious travellers that the reason why it ever had a station at all was to give the engine a rest after it had struggled up the long and trying incline from Threlkeld.

   • 2017 October 2, Jess Cartner-Morle, “Stella McCartney lays waste to disposable fashion in Paris”, in the Guardian‎^[1]:

     Glamour for its own sake is not something I have ever been particularly interested in,” Stella McCartney said backstage after her catwalk show. Which could sound like a facetious statement from a fashion designer who was, at that moment, standing among the marble-slabbed floors, elaborately frescoed ceilings and giant chandeliers of the Palais Garnier opera house, where the show was staged.

2. Pleasantly humorous; jocular.
3. (Of an idea or statement) humorously silly or counterproductive for the purpose of sarcastically advocating the opposite.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:witty

Derived terms

• facetiously
• facetiousness
• semifacetious
• unfacetious

 

Translations

flippant

• Bulgarian: шеговит (bg) (šegovit), закачлив (bg) (zakačliv)
• Dutch: spottend (nl), spotterig
• Finnish: epäasiallinen, näsäviisas (fi)
• French: facétieux (fr)
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• German: spöttisch (de), spöttelnd (de), sarkastisch (de), scherzhaft (de), spaßhaft
• Icelandic: spaugsamur m, gamansamur m
• Italian: faceto (it)
• Macedonian: несерио́зен (neseriózen), леко́мислен (lekómislen), за́качлив (zákačliv)
• Norwegian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: несерьёзный (ru) (neserʹjóznyj)
• Spanish: fisgón (es), socarrón (es)
• Swedish: lättvindig (sv)
• Welsh: please add this translation if you can

pleasantly humorous, jocular

• Bulgarian: забавен (bg) (zabaven)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 轻率的, ^{(please verify)} 滑稽的

• Dutch: grappig (nl)
• Finnish: hyväntuulinen (fi), leikillinen (fi)
• French: facétieux (fr)
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• German: spaßig (de), witzig (de), lustig (de), humorvoll (de), drollig (de)
• Greek: ευτράπελος (el) (eftrápelos)
• Hungarian: tréfálkozó (hu)
• Italian: faceto (it)
• Japanese: 剽軽 (ja) (hyōkin)
• Macedonian: сме́шен (sméšen), за́бавен (zábaven), ше́говит (šégovit)
• Norwegian: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: faceto (pt)
• Russian: шутли́вый (ru) (šutlívyj), шу́точный (ru) (šútočnyj), заба́вный (ru) (zabávnyj)
• Spanish: faceto m (obsolete), gracioso (es) m
• Swedish: skämtsam (sv)
• Welsh: please add this translation if you can

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. 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, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “facetious”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “facetious”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.