Word of the Day Archive
Sunday May 7, 2000
facetious \fuh-SEE-shuhs\ , adjective:
1. Given to jesting; playfully jocular.
2. Amusing; intended to be humorous; not serious.
J. K. Morley was being both serious and facetious when he claimed that "the world's greatest water power is woman's tears."
-- Tom Lutz, Crying: The Natural and Cultural History of Tears
He was by all odds the liveliest, most genial man in the group--"a most engaging and entertaining companion of a sweet, even and lively temper, full of facetious stories always applied with judgment and introduced apropos."
-- Richard M. Ketchum, Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War
Facetious comes from French facetieux, from Latin facetia, "wit," from facetus, "witty."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for facetious
