laughableness en · NOUN
Etymology
Etymology tree English laughable Proto-Germanic *-inōną Proto-Indo-European *-dyé- Proto-Germanic *-atjaną Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *-þuz Proto-Germanic *-assuz Proto-Germanic *-inassuz Proto-West Germanic *-nassī Old English -nes Middle English -nesse English -ness English laughableness From laughable + -ness.
Meanings
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(uncountable) The state or quality of being laughable; ludicrousness.
Two sayings from Seneca speak of the laughableness of man's ambitions on an earth scarred by the wars of so many nations.
2003, Perez Zagorin, “Looking for Pieter Bruegel”, in Journal of the History of Ideas, volume 64, number 1, page 89:We obtain a true perception of the laughableness of this sort of buffoonery.
1889, Alfred Emerson, “On the Conception of Low Comedy in Aristophanes”, in The American Journal of Philology, volume 10, number 3, page 276:They encounter Empousa, the comic monster, who reminds us in spite of her laughableness of the dangerousness of the other.
1989, Richard F. Moorton Jr., “Rites of Passage in Aristophanes' Frogs”, in The American Journal of Philology, volume 84, number 4, page 317: