facetious
adj/fəˈsiːʃəs/ · /fəˈsiːʃɪs/
Etymology From French facétieux, from Latin facētia (“jest, wit, humor”), from facētus (“witty, jocose, facetious”).
1
Treating serious issues with (often deliberately) inappropriate humour; flippant.
- Robbie's joke about Heather's appearance was just him being facetious.
- 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.1951 October, “Notes and News: The Harmonium at Troutbeck”, in Railway Magazine, page 709:
1 more example
- 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.2017 October 2, Jess Cartner-Morle, “Stella McCartney lays waste to disposable fashion in Paris”, in the Guardian:
2
Pleasantly humorous; jocular.
3
humorously silly or counterproductive for the purpose of sarcastically advocating the opposite.
Of an idea or statement
- Derived terms
- facetiously, facetiousness, nonfacetious, semifacetious, unfacetious