Dictionary

funniment en · NOUN

Etymology

From funny + -ment, on model of merriment.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) Drollery, jesting, a funny saying or action.
   • For the funniments of the fair, I confess I have little relish. Springing a rattle, I always deemed something too serious for a joke; and no nautical gentleman ever yet laughed at having his back scratched. 1825, Oxberry’s Dramatic Biography and Histrionic Anecdotes, volume III, London: George Virtue, page 33:
   • His disguise as the Baron Mugwump also lent itself to much funniment. 1930, Harry Randall, Harry Randall, Old Time Comedian, page 136:
   • Therefore he has Berowne leave the stage first, lets Costard lag behind for a little solitary funniment, and then bolt after Berowne. If the funniment raises a laugh, that breaks contact, as it were, and continuity. 1930, Harley Granville-Barker, “Love’s Labour’s Lost”, in Prefaces to Shakespeare:
   • Mrs. Levine, mother of former Councilman Arnold Levine, totes around an array of jokes and general funniments. 1990 September 11, Wally Trabing, “With humor there is life”, in Santa Cruz Sentinel, 134th year, number 219, Santa Cruz, Calif., page A-2:
   • […]; and at some of Barry’s funniments the Prince of Wales and his royal sister laughed[…] 1846, The Pictorial Times, page 205:

Forms