derisible

From Latin *dērīsibilis (compare Italian derisibile, “deridable”), from dērīsus + -ibilis (whence English -ible), a variant of -bilis (adjective-forming suffix that denotes the capacity or worth of being acted upon). Dērīsus is the perfect passive participle of dērīdeō (“to laugh at, make fun of, mock, deride”), from dē- (intensifying prefix) + rīdeō (“to laugh; to laugh at, mock, ridicule”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (originally “to rotate or turn”, then specifically “to turn the lips [for a smile]”), root also of English worth, weird and -ward(s).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɪˈɹɪzɪb(ə)l/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /dəˈɹɪzəbəl/
• Hyphenation: de‧ris‧i‧ble

derisible (comparative more derisible, superlative most derisible)

1. Deserving derision (“treatment with disdain or contempt”).

   Synonyms: contemptible, deridable, derisive; see also Thesaurus:despicable

   Antonyms: respectable, underisive

   • 1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson, “Story of the Destroying Angel”, in More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 45:

     I flung myself before him on my knees, and with floods of tears besought him to release me from this engagement, assuring him that my cowardice was abject, and that in every point of intellect and character I was his hopeless and derisible inferior.