ridicule

Meanings

1. To criticize or disapprove of someone or something through scornful jocularity; to make fun of.

1. Derision; mocking or humiliating words or behavior.
2. An object of sport or laughter; a laughing stock.
3. The quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness.

1. ridiculous

1. A small woman's handbag; a reticule.

Etymology

The obsolete adjective is borrowed from French ridicule, from Latin rīdiculus (“laughable, comical, amusing, absurd, ridiculous”), from ridere (“to laugh”). The noun is either from French, noun use of adjective, or from Latin rīdiculum, noun use of neuter of rīdiculus. The verb is from the noun or else from French ridiculer, from ridicule.