Word of the Day

Sunday, December 23, 2007

persiflage

\PUR-suh-flahzh\ , noun;

Frivolous or bantering talk; a frivolous manner of treating any subject, whether serious or otherwise; light raillery.

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Quotes:

He was somber and wordless and utterly unresponsive to my mother'scharming persiflage.

-- Rosemary Mahoney, A Likely Story

It was a brutal spectacle to watch this Coney Island Keatsian subjected to Winters' unrelenting persiflage.

-- Richard M. Elman, Namedropping: Mostly Literary Memoirs

Origin:

Persiflage comes from French, from persifler, "to banter," from per-, "thoroughly" (from Latin) + siffler, "to hiss, to whistle," ultimately from Latin sibilare, "to hiss (at), to whistle."