drollery

English

Alternative forms

• drolerie (archaic)

Etymology

From French drôlerie, from drôle +‎ -erie; equivalent to droll +‎ -ery.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɹəʊləɹi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

drollery (countable and uncountable, plural drolleries)

1. Comical quality.
   • 1915, W.S. Maugham, Of Human Bondage, chapter 121:

     He found that Sally had a restrained, but keen, sense of the ridiculous, and she made remarks about the girls or the men who were set over them which amused him by their unexpected drollery.

   • 1941 January, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The Scottish Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 1:

     You might be impressed by the simultaneous appearance of "Cardeans", "Clans" and North British Atlantics, or engaged by the drolleries of the three shunting engines, one from each company.

2. Amusing behavior.
3. Something humorous, funny or comical.
   • 1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), page 252:

     "I'm pregnant."
     "No drolleries this morning please."
     "Three months."

4. (archaic) A puppet show; a comic play or entertainment; a comic picture; a caricature.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 13:

     Sebastian: A liuing Drolerie : now I will beleeue
     That there are Vnicornes : that in Arabia
     There is one Tree, the Phœnix throne, one Phœnix
     At this houre reigning there.

5. A joke; a funny story.
6. A small decorative image in the margin of an illuminated manuscript.

Translations

comical quality

• Irish: ábhacht f, áiféis f, aisteachas m, aistiúlacht f, anstrólaíocht f, barrúlacht f, léaspartaíocht f
• Polish: komizm (pl) m, zabawność f
• Russian: ю́мор (ru) m (júmor), коми́чность (ru) f (komíčnostʹ)

amusing behavior

• Irish: ^{(please verify)} áiféis f, léaspartaíocht f, anstrólaíocht f
• Russian: заба́вность (ru) f (zabávnostʹ)

a puppet show

References

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “drollery”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.