Word of the Day

: March 22, 2020

lampoon

verb lam-POON

What It Means

: to make the subject of a satire : ridicule

lampoon in Context

"From 'Seinfeld' to 'Veep,' I think [Julia] Louis-Dreyfus' greatness lies in her ability to savagely skewer the ridiculousness of the men around her while simultaneously lampooning herself." — Jake Coyle, The Washington Post, 12 Feb. 2020

"Ultimately, Craig, a struggling mystery writer, comes up with what he thinks is the perfect crime, but not quite with the results he expected. That's the premise behind Nick Hall's Dead Wrong…. As a playwright, Hall isn't afraid to lampoon the most hallowed gimmicks and creates a clever mystery about a man living off his wife's fortune, a man who plans the perfect murder." — Richard Hutton, The Fort Erie Post (Ontario, Canada), 12 Feb. 2020

Did You Know?

Lampoon can be a noun or a verb. The noun lampoon (meaning "satire" or, specifically, "a harsh satire usually directed against an individual") was first used in English in the 17th century and is still found in use, especially in the names of humor publications such as The Harvard Lampoon. Both the noun and the verb come from the French lampon, which probably originated from lampons, the first person plural imperative of the verb lamper, meaning "to guzzle." So what is the connection? Lampons! (meaning "Let us guzzle!") was a frequent refrain in 17th-century French satirical poems.