Jump to content

joke

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Joke

English

[edit]
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

[edit]
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *yek-
Proto-Indo-European *-os
Proto-Indo-European *yókos
Proto-Italic *jokos
Latin iocus
English joke

    From Latin iocus (“joke, jest, pastime”), from Proto-Italic *jokos (“word, (playful?) saying”), from Proto-Indo-European *yokos (“word, utterance”), from ultimate root Proto-Indo-European *yek- (“to speak, utter”) (of which distant cognates include Proto-Celtic *yextis (“language”) (Breton yezh (“language”) and Welsh iaith (“language”)) and German Beichte (“confession”)). Cognate with French jeu, Italian gioco, Portuguese jogo, Spanish juego, Romanian joc, English Yule, Danish Jule, Norwegian Bokmål Jul, Swedish Jul, and Norwegian Nynorsk jol.

    Pronunciation

    [edit]

    Noun

    [edit]

    joke (plural jokes)

    1. An amusing story.
      • 1708, John Gay, Wine:
        Or witty joke our airy senses moves / To pleasant laughter.
    2. Something said or done for amusement, not in seriousness.
      It was a joke!
    3. (figuratively) A laughably worthless thing or person; a sham.
      Your effort at cleaning your room is a joke.
      The president was a joke.
      • 1943 September and October, T. Lovatt Williams, “Some Reminiscences of the Footplate—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 272:
        The other wheel on the tender of the L.N.W.R. engines operated the tender brake, and this was always rather a joke. Sometimes it operated with good results and on other occasions it did not.
    4. (figuratively) Something that is far easier or far less challenging than expected.
      The final exam was a joke.

    Synonyms

    [edit]

    Coordinate terms

    [edit]

    Derived terms

    [edit]
    [edit]

    Collocations

    [edit]
    Collocations

    Adjectives often applied to "joke": old, bad, inside, poor, silly, funny, lame, hilarious, stupid, offensive.

    Descendants

    [edit]
    • → Danish: joke
    • → French: joke
    • → Japanese: ジョーク (jōku), → Japanese: 冗句
    • → Persian: جوک (jok)
    • → Welsh: jôc

    Translations

    [edit]
    amusing story

    Verb

    [edit]

    joke (third-person singular simple present jokes, present participle joking, simple past and past participle joked)

    1. (intransitive) To do or say something for amusement rather than seriously.
      Synonym: jest (literary)
      I didn’t mean what I said — I was only joking.
    2. (intransitive, followed by with) To dupe in a friendly manner for amusement; to mess with, play with.
      Synonym: sport (formal)
      Relax, man, I'm just joking with you.
    3. (transitive, dated) To make merry with; to make jokes upon; to rally.
      to joke a comrade
      • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 21, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
        He made more than one visit to Oxbridge, where the young fellows were amused by entertaining the old gentleman, and gave parties and breakfasts and fêtes, partly to joke him and partly to do him honour.

    Derived terms

    [edit]
    [edit]

    Translations

    [edit]

    See also

    [edit]

    Anagrams

    [edit]

    Danish

    [edit]

    Etymology 1

    [edit]

    Borrowed from English joke.

    Pronunciation

    [edit]
    • IPA(key): /djowk/, [ˈd̥jɔwɡ̊]

    Noun

    [edit]

    joke c (singular definite joken, plural indefinite jokes)

    1. joke
    Declension
    [edit]
    Declension of joke
    common
    gender     		singular plural
    indefinite definite indefinite definite
    nominative joke joken jokes jokesene
    (unofficial) jokene
    genitive jokes jokens jokes' jokesenes
    (unofficial) jokenes
    Synonyms
    [edit]

    Etymology 2

    [edit]

    Borrowed from English joke.

    Pronunciation

    [edit]
    • IPA(key): /djowkə/, [ˈd̥jɔwɡ̊ə], (imperative) IPA(key): /djowk/, [ˈd̥jɔwˀɡ̊]

    Verb

    [edit]

    joke (past tense jokede, past participle joket)

    1. to joke
    Conjugation
    [edit]
    Conjugation of joke
    active passive
    infinitive joke jokes
    present joker jokes
    past jokede jokedes
    imperative joke —
    participle
    present jokende
    past (have / havde) joket
    gerund joken
    Synonyms
    [edit]

    French

    [edit]

    Etymology

    [edit]

    From English joke.

    Pronunciation

    [edit]

    Noun

    [edit]

    joke f (plural jokes)

    1. (North America) joke
      • 2009, Robert Maltais, Le Curé du Mile End, page 195:
        Non, non, c'est juste une joke. Garde-lé, ton vingt piastres.
        No, no, that was a joke. Keep it, your twenty bucks.

    Derived terms

    [edit]

    Norwegian Nynorsk

    [edit]

    Alternative forms

    [edit]

    Etymology

    [edit]

    Maybe related to dialectal jokk, jokke f (“hollow”).

    Noun

    [edit]

    joke f (definite singular joka, indefinite plural joker, definite plural jokene)

    1. (archaic or dialectal) a hollow, especially in a forest or bog
      Synonyms: slage, søkk, lægd, deld
    2. (archaic or dialectal) a small valley branching out of a larger valley

    See also

    [edit]

    References

    [edit]
    • “joke”, in Norsk Ordbok: Ordbok over det Norske Folkemålet og det Nynorske Skriftmålet (in Norwegian Nynorsk), Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1950–2016, →ISBN.
    Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=joke&oldid=93703000"