joke

Meanings

Noun

• An amusing story.
• Something said or done for amusement, not in seriousness.
• The root cause or main issue, especially an unexpected one
• A laughably worthless thing or person; a sham.

Verb

• To do or say something for amusement rather than seriously.
• (intransitive, followed by with) To dupe in a friendly manner for amusement; to mess with, play with.
• To make merry with; to make jokes upon; to rally.

Origin

• From Latin iocus ("joke, jest, pastime"), from Proto-Italic *jokos ("word, (playful?) saying"), from Proto-Indo-European *yokos ("word, utterance"), from ultimate root Proto-Indo-European *yek- ("to speak, utter") (of which distant cognates include Proto-Celtic *yextis ("language") (Breton yezh ("language") and Welsh iaith ("language")) and German Beichte ("confession")). Cognate with French jouer, Italian giocare, Portuguese jogar, Spanish juego and jugar, Romanian juca, English Yule, Danish Jule, Norwegian Bokmål Jul, Swedish Jul, and Norwegian Nynorsk jol.