ludicrous
English
WOTD – 19 February 2008
Etymology
First attested in 1619. From Latin lūdicrus, from lūdō (“play”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈluː.dɪ.kɹəs/, /ˈljuː.dɪ.kɹəs/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈluː.dɪ.kɹəs/
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Adjective
ludicrous (comparative more ludicrous, superlative most ludicrous)
- Idiotic or unthinkable, often to the point of being funny; amusing by being plainly incongruous or absurd.
- Synonyms: laughable, ridiculous, risible
- He made a ludicrous attempt to run for office.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter III, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698:
- Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071:
- She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […] ; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.
- 2014 October 18, Paul Doyle, “Southampton hammer eight past hapless Sunderland in barmy encounter”, in The Guardian:
- […] That was a lone blemish on an otherwise tidy start by Poyet’s team – until, that is, the 12th minute, when Vergini produced a candidate for the most ludicrous own goal in Premier League history.
- 2023 January 1, John Harris, quoting Jeremy Hunt, “The wreckage of Brexit is all around us. How long can our politicians indulge in denial?”, in The Guardian:
- The government responds to such news with its usual ludicrous evasions: “I don’t deny there are costs to a decision like Brexit,” said Jeremy Hunt in November, “but there are also opportunities, and you have to see it in the round.”
Related terms
- (idiotic or unthinkable): ludicrously, ludicrousness
Translations
idiotic or unthinkable, often to the point of being funny
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