risible

From Middle French risible and directly from Late Latin rīsibilis, from Latin rīsus (“laughter”) + -ibilis, from the perfect passive participle of rīdeō (“laugh”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪzɪbəl/, /ˈɹaɪzɪbəl/

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risible (comparative more risible, superlative most risible)

1. Of or pertaining to laughter

   the risible muscles

   • 1912, Arthur Quiller-Couch, chapter 20, in Hocken and Hunken:

     A joke merely affected her with silent convulsive twitchings, as though the risible faculties struggled somewhere within her but could not bring the laugh to birth.

2. Provoking laughter; ludicrous; ridiculous; humorously insignificant
   • 1822, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 277:

     " […] I hope you find nothing risible in my complaisance?" replied his companion, something jealously.

   • 1979, Monty Python's Life of Brian, spoken by Pontius Pilate (Michael Palin):

     Do you find it risible when I say the name, 'Biggus Dickus'?

   • 2024 May 1, Mel Holley, “Network News: New action from ASLEF to hit Bank Holiday services”, in RAIL, number 1008, page 14:

     Whelan called the offer "risible", describing it as a "land grab for all the terms and conditions we have negotiating over the years". He demanded a no-strings pay offer that recognises the "significant cost of living increases" since the last pay rise in 2019.

3. (of a person) Easily laughing; prone to laughter
   • 1674, Anonymous [Richard Allestree?], “Of Scoffing and Deriſion”, in The Government of the Tongue‎, At the Theater in Oxford, page 119:

     We are got indeed into a merry world, Laughing is our main buſiniſs; as if becauſe it has bin made part of the Definition of man, that he his Riſible, his man-hood conſiſted in nothing elſe.

   • 1897, Thomas Hardy, chapter 8, in The Well-Beloved:

     She was half risible, half concerned.

• (provoking laughter): funny, laughable, ludicrous

• deridable
• derisible
• laughable

• birlies

risible m or f (masculine and feminine plural risibles)

1. laughable

Learned borrowing from Latin rīsibilis, from rīdeō (“to laugh”).

• IPA^(key): /ʁi.zibl/

risible (plural risibles)

1. risible, laughable

• risiblement

• dérisoire
• ridicule
• rire

• “risible”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from Late Latin rīsibilis, from rīdeō (“to laugh”).

• IPA^(key): /riˈsible/ [riˈsi.β̞le]
• Rhymes: -ible
• Syllabification: ri‧si‧ble

risible m or f (masculine and feminine plural risibles)

1. risible, laughable

• “risible”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014