joke

head

joke c (singular definite joken, plural indefinite jokes)

joken (definite singular)
jokes (indefinite plural)
joke (indefinite nominative singular)
joken (definite nominative singular)
jokes (indefinite nominative plural)
jokesene (definite nominative plural)
jokene (colloquial definite nominative plural)
jokes (genitive indefinite singular)
jokens (definite genitive singular)
jokes' (genitive indefinite plural)
jokesenes (definite genitive plural)
jokenes (colloquial definite genitive plural)


joke

joke (past tense jokede, past participle joket)

jokede (past)
joket (participle past)
joker (active present)
jokes (passive present)
jokede (active past)
jokedes (passive past)
joke (active infinitive)
jokes (infinitive passive)
joke (active imperative)
jokende (participle present)
joket (participle past)
auxiliary verb have (participle past)
joken (gerund participle)


joke

Or witty joke our airy senses moves / To pleasant laughter.

It was a joke!

1733–1737, Alexander Pope, [Imitations of Horace], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley [et al.]:

Something said or done for amusement, not in seriousness.

(figuratively) The root cause or main issue, especially an unexpected one

Your effort at cleaning your room is a joke.

The president was a joke.

The other wheel on the tender of the L.N.W.R. engines operated the tender brake, and this was always rather a joke. Sometimes it operated with good results and on other occasions it did not.

1943 September and October, T. Lovatt Williams, “Some Reminiscences of the Footplate—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 272:

(figuratively) A laughably worthless thing or person; a sham.

The final exam was a joke.

(figuratively) Something that is far easier or far less challenging than expected.

→ Danish: joke

→ French: joke

→ Persian: جوک

→ Japanese: ジョーク, → Japanese: 冗句

→ Welsh: jôc

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 jeu, Italian gioco, Portuguese jogo, Spanish juego, Romanian joc, English Yule, Danish Jule, Norwegian Bokmål Jul, Swedish Jul, and Norwegian Nynorsk jol.


joke

I didn’t mean what I said — I was only joking.

(intransitive) To do or say something for amusement rather than seriously.

Relax, man, I'm just joking with you.

(intransitive, followed by with) To dupe in a friendly manner for amusement; to mess with, play with.

to joke a comrade

He made more than one visit to Oxbridge, where the young fellows were amused by entertaining the old gentleman, and gave parties and breakfasts and fêtes, partly to joke him and partly to do him honour.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 21, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

(transitive, dated) To make merry with; to make jokes upon; to rally.

en-verb

joke (third-person singular simple present jokes, present participle joking, simple past and past participle joked)

jokes (present singular third-person)
joking (participle present)
joked (participle past)
joked (past)


joke

Non, non, c’est juste une joke. Garde-lé, ton vingt piastres.

2009, Robert Maltais, Le Curé du Mile End, page 195:

No, no, that was a joke. Keep it, your twenty bucks.


joke

Proto-Samoyedic: *jəkå (see there for further descendants)

Ugric

Mansi:

Northern Mansi: я̄ (â̄)

desc

Hungarian: jó (archaic, used only in place names)

Proto-Permic: *ju (see there for further descendants)

>? Proto-Mordvinic:

>? Erzya: Йов (Jov, “the Moksha river”)

Proto-Finnic: *joki (see there for further descendants)

Proto-Samic: *jokë (see there for further descendants)

Likely a doublet *juka, from which some of the descendants may also rather derive.