travesty
pronunciation
How to pronounce travesty in British English:
UK [ˈtrævəsti]
How to pronounce travesty in American English:
US [ˈtrævɪsti]
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- Noun:
- a comedy characterized by broad satire and improbable situations
- a composition that imitates somebody's style in a humorous way
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- Verb:
- make a travesty of
Word Origin
- travesty
- travesty: [17] Travesty and transvestite [20] are first cousins. Both are compounded of the Latin elements trāns- ‘across’ and vestīre ‘clothe’ (source of English vest, vestment, etc), but they are separate formations. Travesty comes ultimately from Italian travestire ‘change clothes so as to disguise’, formed from the Italian descendants of the Latin elements.This was borrowed into French as travestir ‘ridicule’, and its past participle travesti gave English travesty. Transvestite is a new formation, coined in German in the first decade of the 20th century (although there are a couple of isolated instances of a verb transvest ‘cross-dress’ from the 1650s).=> invest, transvestite, vest, vestment
- travesty (n.)
- 1670s, "literary burlesque of a serious work," from adjective meaning "dressed so as to be made ridiculous, parodied, burlesqued" (1660s), from French travesti "dressed in disguise," past participle of travestir "to disguise" (1590s), from Italian travestire "to disguise," from Latin trans- "over" (see trans-) + vestire "to clothe" (see wear (v.)).
Example
- 1. This is , of course , a travesty of the true meaning of lunch .
- 2. And more importantly , how do we undo this travesty ?
- 3. It would be a travesty of democracy for the elite now to order the people to keep voting until they give the " right " answer .
- 4. Today the new york times ran a front-page story on mr godoy toscano 's case , painting his saga as a travesty of justice , which of course it is .
- 5. The commentary suggested that chinese distrust of western intervention lay behind the veto , which was described as a " travesty " by hillary clinton , the us secretary of state .