English
ridiculous
Ridiculous comes from Latin rīdiculus ‘laughable, ridiculous’, and goes back to rīdeō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErīdeō‘laugh’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CErīdiculus‘laughable’
- Englishearliest quotation 1774ridiculous
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErīdeō‘laugh’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CErīdiculus‘laughable’
- Englishearliest quotation 1774ridiculous
Earliest quotation: 1774, James Burnett, Lord Monboddo: “All the characters he has imitated are of the…”
Formed from ridicule + -ous
Latin rideō ‘to laugh’
Latin rīdiculus ‘laughable, comical, amusing, absurd, ridiculous’
French ridicule ‘ridiculous’
English ridicule
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *wert- ‘to turn, to rotate, spin’
university, word, worth, version, weird, conversation, universe, divorce, verse, diversity, versus, vertical, advertisement, versatile, convertible, vortex, advert, adversity, revert, pervert, divert, vertex, vertigo, avert, diversification, vert, verso, perversity, wurst, 75 more
through Latin rīdeō ‘laugh’
Today it means
adj Deserving of ridicule; foolish, absurd.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin rīdeō / ridiculous