Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Ribaldry |
RibaldryNoun1. Ribald humor. 2. Behavior or language bordering on indelicacy. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "ribaldry" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
Etymology: Ribaldry \Rib"ald*ry\, noun. [from Old English expression ribaldrie, ribaudrie, Old French ribalderie, ribauderie.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | RIBALDRY, n. Censorious language by another concerning oneself. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Literature | Ribaldry is the language of a ribald. (French, ribaud; Old French, ribaudie; Italian, ribalderia, the language of a vagabond or rogue.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Slang in 1811 | RIBALDRY. Vulgar abusive language, such as was spoken by ribalds. Ribalds were originally mercenary soldiers who travelled about, serving any master far pay, but afterwards degenerated into a mere banditti. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Ribaldry is the third and somewhat neglected genre of sexual entertainments, something different from either pornography or erotica, yet is often confused with them.Unlike either pornography or erotica, which play sex or sexual fetishes "straight," ribaldry aims at humor. Sexual situations and titillation are presented in ribald material more for the purpose of poking fun at the human foibles and weaknesses that manifest themselves in human sexuality, rather than to present sexual stimulation either simply or artistically. Also, ribaldry may use sex as a metaphor to illustrate some non-sexual concern, in which case ribaldry may verge on the territory of satire.
Like any humor, ribaldry may be read as conventional or subversive. Ribaldry typically depends on a shared background of sexual conventions and values, and its comedy generally depends on seeing those conventions broken. Depending on your attitude, viewers can perceive this either as poking fun on the poor souls who suffer the consequences of breaking the taboos, or as flouting the taboos themselves.
The ritual taboo-breaking that is a usual counterpart of ribaldry underlies its controversial nature, and why ribaldry is frequently a subject of censorship. Ribaldry, whose usual aim is not "merely" to be sexually stimulating, often does address larger concerns than mere sexual appetite. However, being presented in the form of comedy, these larger concerns seem to censors to be un-serious. Moreover, the presence of satirical content in ribaldry tends to rouse the wrath of authorities, who may overlook more explicit sexual entertainments in order to prosecute comedians whom they perceive as attacking conventions they wish to maintain.
Ribaldry has likely been around for the whole history of the human race, and is present to some degree in every culture. Ancient authors like Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the Cena Trimalchionis by Petronius, and the Metamorphoses or Golden Ass of Apuleius are ribald classics from ancient Europe. Francois Rabelais showed himself to be a master of ribaldry in his Gargantua. More recent works like Candy by Terry Southern, films like Barbarella by Roger Vadim, or the comedic works of Russ Meyer are probably better classified as ribaldry than as either pornography or erotica.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Ribaldry."
Synonyms: RibaldrySynonyms: gaminess (n), raciness (n), spiciness (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Impurity | Noun: impurity; uncleanness; (filth); immodesty; grossness; Adjective: indelicacy, indecency; impudicity; obscenity, ribaldry, Fescennine, smut, bawdry, double entente, equivoque. |
Malediction | Abuse; foul language, bad language, strong language, unparliamentary language; billingsgate, sauce, evil speaking; cursing; Verb: profane swearing, oath; foul invective, ribaldry, rude reproach, scurrility. |
Vulgarity | Lowness, homeliness; low life, mauvais ton, rusticity; boorishness; Adjective: brutality; rowdyism, blackguardism; ribaldry; slang; (neology). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Ribaldry |
| English words defined with "ribaldry": Ribaudry, Ribaudy ♦ Ustilago segetum. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "ribaldry": Ribaudy. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Ribaldry" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Ribaldry" is used about 11 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 11 | 106,044 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
ribaldry | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "ribaldry"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Arabic | فحش (filth, obscenity), كلام بذىء (smut, stupidity), سفاهة (gall, impertinence, naughtiness, salaciousness, scurrility), بذاءة (bawdiness, dirt, dirtiness, filth, filthiness, foulness, immodesty, impropriety, impurity, indecency, lewdness, nastiness, obscenity, smut, sordidness). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | груби шеги, нецензурност (lewdness, salacity), неприличен език, непочтителност (disrespect, impiety, irreverence). (various references) | |
Czech | oplzlost (bawdiness, lewdness, obscenity, vileness). (various references) | |
Farsi | پستی (Bastardization, Blackguardism, Mail, Misery, Postal, Recess, Turpitude, Villainy, Vulgarity), هرزگی (Debauch, Debauchery, Depravity, Incontinence, Lechery, Profligacy, Prurience). (various references) | |
French | paillardises. (various references) | |
German | schweinereien (rascalities), Frechheit (barefacedness, brashness, brass, cheek, cheekiness, effrontery, freshness, frivolity, gall, immodesty, impudence, insolence, naughtiness, nerve, sass, sassiness, sauce, sauciness), ferkeleien (ribald talk), deftigkeit (solidness). (various references) | |
Greek | αισχρολογία (smut). (various references) | |
Hebrew | בול פ" (bawdiness, bawdry, obscenity, profanity, scurrility, smut). (various references) | |
Hungarian | sikamlósság (lubricity, obscenity), malackodás (piggery), disznólkodás (piggery). (various references) | |
Italian | sguaiataggine, linguaggio (accent, imagery, language, lingo, parlance, speech). (various references) | |
Manx | ronneeaght (catch, ditty, doggerel, foolish song, horse play, madrigal, ranting, revel; raving in drink, revelry, versification). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ibaldryray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | pornográfica, obscenidade (bawdy, blackguardism, dirt, foulness, impurity, indecency, obscene, obscenity, ordure, scurrility, smut), linguagem irreverente, linguagem indecente, grosseria (awkwardness, broadness, foulness, hog, horseplay, indelicacy, lumpishness, rough, roughness, rudeness, scurrility, vulgarism), desbragamento. (various references) | |
Romanian | purtare neruşinata, porcãrii (ribaldries, smut), obscenitãţi (bawdry), mãscãrie (bawdry). (various references) | |
Russian | сквернословие (bawdry, foul language), скабрезность, грубость (asperity, broadness, callousness, coarseness, crudeness, crudity, discourtesy, harshness, ill breeding, roughness, rudeness, ruffianism, scurrility, truculence), непристойность (bawdiness, indecency, obscenity, ordure, salaciousness, salacity, scurrility). (various references) | |
Spanish | obscenidad (bawdiness, dirt, dirtiness, lewdness, obscenity, ordure, smut, smuttiness). (various references) | |
Swedish | oanständigheter (filth, obscenities). (various references) | |
Thai | ตลกหยาบโลน. (various references) | |
Turkish | terbiyesizlik (back chat, bad manners, coarseness, disorderliness, gaucherie, ill breeding, immodesty, immorality, impertinence, impoliteness, impudence, indecorum, indelicacy, inelegance, misbehavior, misbehaviour, rudeness, vulgarism), terbiyesiz söz, soğuk şaka, açık saçık konuşma (smut). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | розпуста (bawdry, debauch, harlotry, lechery, ordure, wantonness, whoredom), непристойний жарт, лихослів'я (balderdash, detraction, evil-speaking, filth, obloquy, slander, whispering). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tính thô tục (commonness, filthiness, hoggishness, piggishness, scurrility), tính tục tĩu lời nói tục tĩu. (various references) | |
Welsh | serthedd (obscenity), maswedd (wantonness). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "ribaldry" (pronounced rī"bÄldrē) |
| 4 | -l d r ē | heraldry. |
| 3 | -d r ē | cadre, laundry, foundry, husbandry, polyandry, sundry, tawdry, wizardry. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-d-i-l-r-r-y" | |
-1 letter: library, rabidly. | |
-2 letters: aridly, briard, briary, bridal, drably, ribald. | |
-3 letters: badly, baldy, bialy, braid, brail, briar, daily, dairy, diary, drail, drily, laird, lardy, liard, libra, lidar, lyard, rabid, riyal, yaird. | |
-4 letters: ably, abri, airy, arid, aril, aryl, bail, bald, bard, bird, birl, birr, brad, bray, byrl, darb, dial, dirl, drab, dray, drib, idly, idyl. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-b-d-i-l-r-r-y" | |
+3 letters: irradicably. | |
+4 letters: irredeemably, irremediably. | |
+5 letters: deterrability, perdurability. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Translations: Modern 8. Rhymes | 9. Anagrams 10. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
