farce

Definition

A style of humor marked by broad improbabilities with little regard to regularity or method.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French farce (“farce (style of humor); stuffing”) (in the latter sense, via Middle English fars, farsse), from Old French farse, from Medieval Latin farsa, from the feminine perfect passive participle of Latin farciō (“to stuff”). The theatre sense alludes to the pleasant and varied character of certain stuffed food items. Doublet of farse.

Example Sentences

• "The farce that we saw last night had us laughing and shaking our heads at the same time."
• "Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language[…]; his clerks […] understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there."
• "The first month of labor negotiations was a farce."

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