English

ridiculous

Ridiculous comes from Latin rīdiculus ‘laughable, ridiculous’, and goes back to rīdeō.

Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErīdeō¹‘laugh’
Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErīdiculus²‘laughable’
Englishearliest quotation 1774ridiculous²

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

¹ Wiktionary, Latin ridiculus
² Wiktionary, English ridiculous
Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1774, James Burnett, Lord Monboddo: “All the characters he has imitated are of the…”.

Lineage

Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErīdeō1Wiktionary, Latin ridiculus‘laugh’
Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErīdiculus2Wiktionary, English ridiculous‘laughable’
Englishearliest quotation 1774ridiculous2Wiktionary, English ridiculous. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1774, James Burnett, Lord Monboddo: “All the characters he has imitated are of the…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with ridiculous, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *wert- ‘to turn, to rotate, spin’

university ← universite ← université ← universitei ← universitas
word ← worth ← worthen ← weorþan ← *werþan
worth ← weorþ ← *werþ ← *werþaz
version ← versiō ← vertō ← *wertō
weird ← werde ← wyrd ← *wurdi ← *wurdiz
conversation ← conversacioun ← conversacion ← conversātiōnem ← conversātiō
universe ← univers ← ūniversus ← versus ← vorsus
divorce ← dīvortium ← dīvertere ← vertō ← *wertō
verse ← vers ← fers ← versus ← vertō
diversity ← diversite ← diversité ← dīversitās ← dīversus
versus ← vertō ← *wertō
vertical ← verticālis ← vertex ← vertō ← *wertō

104 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

adj Deserving of ridicule; foolish, absurd.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “ridiculous”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin ridiculus. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin rīdeō / ridiculous