facetious

From French facétieux, from Latin facētia (“jest, wit, humor”), from facētus (“witty, jocose, facetious”).

• IPA^(key): /fəˈsiːʃəs/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːʃəs
• Hyphenation: fa‧ce‧tious

facetious (comparative more facetious, superlative most facetious)

1. Treating serious issues with (often deliberately) inappropriate humour; flippant.

   Robbie's joke about Heather's appearance was just him being facetious.

   • 2017 October 2, Jess Cartner-Morle, “Stella McCartney lays waste to disposable fashion in Paris”, in the Guardian‎:

     Glamour for its own sake is not something I have ever been particularly interested in,” Stella McCartney said backstage after her catwalk show. Which could sound like a facetious statement from a fashion designer who was, at that moment, standing among the marble-slabbed floors, elaborately frescoed ceilings and giant chandeliers of the Palais Garnier opera house, where the show was staged.

2. Pleasantly humorous; jocular.

• See also Thesaurus:witty

• facetiously
• facetiousness

• facetious in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• facetious in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• facetious at OneLook Dictionary Search