derisible

English

WOTD – 25 February 2022

Etymology

PIE word
*de

From Latin *dērīsibilis (compare Italian derisibile (“that may be derided”)) + English -ible (a variant of -able (suffix meaning ‘able or fit to be done’ forming adjectives)). *Dērīsibilis is derived from dērīsus + -ibilis (a variant of -bilis (suffix forming adjectives indicating a capacity or worth of being acted upon)); while dērīsus is the perfect passive participle of dērīdeō (“to laugh at, make fun of, mock, deride”), from dē- (intensifying prefix) + rīdeō (“to laugh; to laugh at, mock, ridicule”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to rotate; to turn”), in the sense of turning the mouth to smile).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɪˈɹɪzɪb(ə)l/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /dəˈɹɪzəbəl/
• Hyphenation: de‧ris‧i‧ble

Adjective

derisible (comparative more derisible, superlative most derisible)

1. Deserving derision (“treatment with disdain or contempt”).

   Synonyms: contemptible, deridable, derisive; see also Thesaurus:despicable

   Antonyms: respectable, underisive

   • 1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson, “Story of the Destroying Angel”, in More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 45:

     I flung myself before him on my knees, and with floods of tears besought him to release me from this engagement, assuring him that my cowardice was abject, and that in every point of intellect and character I was his hopeless and derisible inferior.

Related terms

• deridable
• deride
• derider
• derision
• derisive
• derisively
• derisiveness
• derisory
• risibility
• risible
• risibleness
• risibly
• underisive

 

Translations

deserving derision

• Italian: derisibile
• Thai: ขัน (th) (kǎn)