Definition: apt to be a subject of jest or mockery
Pronunciation: lu-DI-bri-us
Origin:
Dating back to the 1570’s, this word originates in the Latin stem ludere, meaning to play. The Latin ludibrium referred to playful behavior or joking, but also mockery and derision.
Why this word?
Microsoft Word marks ludibrious as a misspelled word, and instead offers ludicrous, which is not a complete mistake as these two words are related, but ludibrious is a real word nonetheless.
Although this word is rooted in the Latin language, when the American politician and poet, Joel Barlow, published his “Columbiad” in 1807, most criticism was pointed at the amount of new words he coined- ludibrious was mistakenly added to that list. The word appeared in a few more works before completely dying out…
How to use the word ludibrious in a sentence?
Kids are cruel, we all know that. Now let’s imagine a cruel kid saying “Georg, you are absolutely ludibrious”! instead of “Yo’ mama is so..” or something like that.
“I was a very ludibrious girl growing up, everyone laughed at my accent and hair style”
“The famous writers could not avoid mentioning the ludibrious work by their new fellow writer at the annual awards ceremony”.
