Dictionary

misogelastic en · ADJ

Etymology

From miso- (“hatred; dislike; aversion”) + gelastic.

Meanings

1. (literary, rare) Having a hatred of laughter.
   • Misogelastic views are valuable in that they can provide a mirror of contemporary attitudes, reflecting back the positives as negative and vice versa. 2005, Michael Billig, “Superiority Theories: Hobbes and Other Misogelasts”, in Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Laughter, London […]: SAGE Publications, →ISBN, page 37:
   • The many versions of this story during the Middle Ages were probably spread by agelastic or misogelastic members of the clergy. 1978, Evan Esar, The Comic Encyclopedia: A Library of the Literature and History of Humor Containing Thousands of Gags, Sayings, and Stories, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., →ISBN, page 15, column 2:
   • Our suave President sallies forth with another joyously self-effacing witticism, putting Americans everywhere in mind of Bob Hope at his best or Jay Leno. Yet what is the effect on the misogelastic reporter from AmPros? 2004 December, “Current Wisdom”, in The American Spectator, volume 37, number 100, Arlington, V.A.: The American Spectator, LLC, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 84, column 3:
   • Kinsley has always been given to amusing put-downs—a dispensation allowed him in the misogelastic media because he presents himself as a moralist. 1992, R[obert] Emmett Tyrrell Jr., The Conservative Crack-Up, New York, N.Y. […]: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 139:
   • It is but one step from being agelastic to misogelastic, and the μισογέλως, the laughter-hating, soon learns to dignify his dislike as an objection in morality. 1877 February 1, George Meredith, “On the Idea of Comedy and of the Uses of the Comic Spirit”, in New Quarterly Magazine, volume VIII, London: Ward, Lock, & Co., page 2:
   • Affected by widespread misogelastic tendencies among arbiters of film culture, animation was relegated to reaches of a cultural limbo even beyond those occupied by other film forms with a touch of levity, such as the musical or comedy. 1997, Mark Langer, “Animatophilia, cultural production and corporate interests: The case of Ren & Stimpy”, in Jayne Pilling, editor, A Reader in Animation Studies, London […]: John Libbey, →ISBN, page 145:

Forms

Relateds

agelast · misogelast · agelastic