English
laughing stock
From laughing + stock (“source, supply; butt, target”).
A compound of laughing + stock ‘source, supply’
Proto-Germanic *stukkaz ‘tree-trunk’
Proto-West Germanic *stokk
Old English stocc ‘log, trunk’
Middle English stok ‘tree trunk’
English stock
Today it means
noun An object of ridicule, someone who is publicly ridiculed; the butt of a joke.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / laughing stock