Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a facetious manner; merrily; waggishly; wittily; with pleasantry.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In a facetious or flippant manner; in a manner that treats serious issues with deliberately inappropriate humor
  • adverb dated In a pleasantly humorous or playful fashion.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb not seriously

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From facetious +‎ -ly

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Examples

  • Indeed, Asperger’s is all over SF, nor did I use the term facetiously in this case, since I suspect (albeit only from a remove, and based only on my interactions with him) that Burt may have some variation of Asperger’s, which would explain (although not necessarily excuse) some of his truculent behavior and inability to process why others might have objections to his actions.

    A Gut Check Moment for SFWA « Whatever 2008

  • Suggesting it as to people whom you do dislike, even if you suggest it facetiously, is mean-spirited.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Follow-up on Garrison Keillor: 2004

  • The first: At a demonstration in Berlin, our German comrades I do not use the word facetiously, only sadly hoisted a placard reading, “Dresden 1945, Baghdad 2003: the same crime.

    Philocrites: August 2003 Archives 2003

  • The Bothie was the name facetiously given by Alexander, Baron Rothie, son of the Marquis of Boarshead, to a house he had built in the neighbourhood, chiefly for the accommodation of his bachelor friends from London during the shooting-season.

    Robert Falconer George MacDonald 1864

  • [2] Witness his well known pun on the name of his adversary Vigilantius, whom he calls facetiously Dormitantius.

    The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore Collected by Himself with Explanatory Notes Thomas Moore 1815

  • He developed the idea facetiously, whilst John regarded him as he might have watched a performing monkey.

    New Grub Street 2003

  • So it happened that when Missou arrived a few minutes later he found this pair of gentlemen, who were about to flee for their lives, busily inditing what McWilliams had termed facetiously billets-doux.

    Wyoming, a Story of the Outdoor West William MacLeod Raine 1912

  • Beyond Clinton and Palin, Kornblut describes the roadblocks all female candidates must hurdle, dubbed facetiously as "hair, hemlines and husbands," and as she tackles the question of what it will take to win, looks at the women who have successfully maneuvered around them.

    National Catholic Reporter 2010

  • Beyond Clinton and Palin, Kornblut describes the roadblocks all female candidates must hurdle, dubbed facetiously as "hair, hemlines and husbands," and as she tackles the question of what it will take to win, looks at the women who have successfully maneuvered around them.

    National Catholic Reporter 2010

  • “I know this is not quite the right word”, the inverted commas seem to say, “but I can’t be bothered to think of a better”; or, “please note that I am using this word facetiously”; or, “don’t think I don’t know that this is a cliché”.

    February « 2009 « Sentence first 2009

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  • contains 6 vowels in alphabetical order

    December 2, 2006