badinage

noun

ba·​di·​nage ˌba-də-ˈnäzh How to pronounce badinage (audio)
: playful repartee : banter

Examples of badinage in a Sentence

the sophisticated badinage of the characters in plays by Oscar Wilde
Recent Examples on the Web The question of who was manipulating whom had been a meta thing in our conversations from the beginning, with jokey badinage about the power of interviewers and the vulnerability of their subjects. Laura Kipnis, WIRED, 5 Dec. 2023 The music is in the badinage. Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 17 Dec. 2020 But also present are Heyer’s wry humor and deftness in witty badinage. Katherine A. Powers, Washington Post, 10 Sep. 2022 The film, directed with an alluring blend of badinage and upper-crust sensuality by Emma Holly Jones, is based on a novel by Suzanne Allain (who wrote the screenplay), which was published in 2020 and designed to be a playful riff on Jane Austen. Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 1 July 2022 The banality of Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s adapted script suggests satire, yet the film is fairly humorless, despite the musicians’ profane badinage. Armond White, National Review, 1 Jan. 2021 The result is a system that favors cable-ready wisecracks and viral badinage over substantive policy discussions. Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 31 July 2020 Ironic hyperbole was a form of badinage that came easily to Smith. Verlyn Klinkenborg, The New York Review of Books, 14 May 2020 And the fact that this is where supporters have ended up after mere hours of social media badinage tells you just how weak the defense is. Megan McArdle, Alaska Dispatch News, 11 July 2017

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'badinage.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French, going back to Middle French, "foolishness, stupidity," from badiner "to banter, jest, play the fool" (verbal derivative of badin "silly, foolish," as noun, "fool, simpleton," borrowed from Occitan, from badar "to have the mouth wide open, gape"—going back to Vulgar Latin *batāre, perhaps of imitative origin—+ -in, adjective suffix) + -age -age

First Known Use

circa 1658, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of badinage was circa 1658

Dictionary Entries Near badinage

Cite this Entry

“Badinage.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/badinage. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

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