Playful Adjectives

Question 1

Memory Cues

Answer 1

Miss Chief’s¹__playful² __beagle³ gave me four licks⁴, and wagged⁵ his tail

The Rogaine⁶ helped the jocky’s⁷ philly⁸ to gain some⁹ hair.

The sport of¹⁰ throwing a puck at a dish¹¹just causes¹² a loud tic¹³ when you finish¹⁴

Question 2

playful

Answer 2

• prone to playing and having fun
• done with playful intent or in a nonserious way

Old English plegan, plegian “move rapidly, occupy or busy oneself, exercise; frolic; make sport of, mock; perform music,” from West Germanic *plegan “occupy oneself about” (source also of Old Saxon plegan “vouch for, take charge of,” Old Frisian plega “tend to,” Middle Dutch pleyen “to rejoice, be glad,” German pflegen “take care of, cultivate”), from PIE root *dlegh- “to engage oneself, be or become fixed.”

Question 3

ludic

Answer 3

expressive of a playful but aimless outlook

showing spontaneous and undirected playfulness.

• My ludic friend Perry has the peculiar habit of making a joke in the midst of a conversation when you least expect it.*
• ONe minute the cats will be sitting quietly on the sofa, and the next minute they will spring up and engage in ludic combat.*

Fr ludique < L ludus: see ludicrous

Question 4

mischievous

Answer 4

fondness for causing trouble in a playful non-malacious way.

“two mischievous kittens had decorated the bed with shredded newspaper”

mischief (n.)

c. 1300, “evil condition, misfortune, need, want,” from Old French meschief “misfortune, harm, trouble; annoyance, vexation” (12c., Modern French méchef), verbal noun from meschever “come or bring to grief, be unfortunate” (opposite of achieve), from mes- “badly” (see mis- (2)) + chever “happen, come to a head,” from Vulgar Latin *capare “head,” from Latin caput “head” (from PIE root *kaput- “head”). Meaning “harm or evil considered as the work of some agent or due to some cause” is from late 15c. Sense of “playful malice” first recorded 1784.

Question 5

impish

Answer 5

1, prone to act disrespectful or naughty towards an elder or superior in a playful way

2. inclined to do naughty things for fun

Impish is a mix of 3 qualities: playfulness; naughtyness; ingenuousness

in Old English an imp was a “child of the devil”, and this noun was adopted to describe a mischievous child

• My daughter’s impish friend asked me how old I was, and when I told her she smiled and said I look much older.*
• impish sense of humour.*

imp (n.)

Old English impe, impa “young shoot, graft,” from impian “to graft,” probably an early Germanic borrowing from Vulgar Latin *imptus, from Late Latin impotus “implanted,” from Greek emphytos, verbal adjective formed from emphyein “implant,” from em- “in” + phyein “to bring forth, make grow,” from PIE root *bheue- “to be, exist, grow.” Compare Swedish ymp, Danish ympe “graft.”

The sense of the word has shifted from plants to people, via the meaning “child, offspring” (late 14c., now obsolete), from the notion of “newness.” The current meaning “little devil” is attested from 1580s, from common pejorative phrases such as imp of Satan. The extension from this to “mischievous or pert child” (1640s) unconsciously turns the word back toward its Middle English sense.

Question 6

puckish

Answer 6

inclined to play clever tricks on people or to manipulate them in a shrewd and clever manner, not with malcious intent but rather for a humorous desire to see human weakness or ingenousness on display.

Puck is a mythological fairey with magical powers to grant wishes to human beings

Question 7

roguish

Answer 7

playfully mischievous, with an intent to bring about a sexual dalliance

“he gave her a roguish smile”

rogue (n.)

1560s, “idle vagrant,” perhaps a shortened form of roger (with a hard -g-), thieves’ slang for a begging vagabond who pretends to be a poor scholar from Oxford or Cambridge, which is perhaps an agent noun in English from Latin rogare “to ask.” Another theory [Klein] traces it to Celtic (compare Breton rog “haughty”); OED says, “There is no evidence of connexion with F. rogue ‘arrogant.’ “

In playful or affectionate use, “one who is mischievous,” 1590s. Meaning “large wild beast living apart from the herd” is from 1859, originally of elephants. Meaning “something uncontrolled or undisciplined” is from 1964. Also common in 17c. as a verb. Rogue’s gallery “police collection of mug shots” is attested from 1859.

Question 8

gamesome

Answer 8

prone to delight in playful competition, sport and games

ME gamsum: see game & -some

game (adj.2)

“ready for action, unafraid, and up to the task;” probably literally “spirited as a game-cock,” 1725, from game-cock “bird bred for fighting” (1670s), from game (n.) in the “sport, amusement” sense. Middle English adjectives gamesome, gamelich meant “joyful, playful, sportive.”

game (n.)

c. 1200, from Old English gamen “joy, fun; game, amusement,” common Germanic (cognates: Old Frisian game “joy, glee,” Old Norse gaman “game, sport; pleasure, amusement,” Old Saxon gaman, Old High German gaman “sport, merriment,” Danish gamen, Swedish gamman “merriment”), said to be identical with Gothic gaman “participation, communion,” from Proto-Germanic *ga- collective prefix + *mann “person,” giving a sense of “people together.”

Question 9

frolicsome

Answer 9

given to physical playfulness or romping about in a happy, carefree way

The young lovers were frolicking in the shallow surf as they meandered along the seashore

Question 10

waggish

Answer 10

playfully humorous in a mischievous, or facetious manner

Question 11

sportive

Answer 11

inclined to engage in watching or playing sports or athletic activities

Question 12

espiègle

Answer 12

inclined to engage in playful pranks or reckless play

Espiègle is a corruption of Ulespiegle, the French name for Till Eulenspiegel, a peasant prankster of German folklore. Tales of Eulenspiegel’s merry pranks against well-to-do townsmen, clergy, and nobility were first translated into French in 1532 and into English around 1560. In the 19th century, Sir Walter Scott introduced his readers to the adjective espiègle and the related noun espièglerie (a word for “roguishness” or “playfulness”) in his Waverley novels. Other 19th century authors followed suit, and even today these words are most likely to be encountered in literature.

Question 13

jocular

Answer 13

given to jesting and making playful jokes sometimes with a purpose to evade an issue or avoid being serious

Often it implies evasion of an issue by a joke.

1620s, “disposed to joking,” from Latin iocularis “funny, comic,” from ioculus “joke,” diminutive of iocus “pastime; a joke” (see joke (n.)).

witty, humorous, facetious, jocular, jocose mean provoking or intended to provoke laughter. witty suggests cleverness and quickness of mind. 〈a witty remark〉 humorous applies broadly to anything that evokes usually genial laughter and may contrast with witty in suggesting whimsicality or eccentricity. 〈humorous anecdotes〉 facetious stresses a desire to produce laughter and may be derogatory in implying dubious or ill-timed attempts at wit or humor. 〈facetious comments〉 jocular implies a usually habitual fondness for jesting and joking. 〈a jocular fellow〉 jocose is somewhat less derogatory than facetious in suggesting habitual waggishness or playfulness. 〈jocose proposals〉

Question 14

silly

Answer 14

behaving in a foolish, non-sensical or childish manner

If you say that someone or something is silly, you mean that they are foolish, childish, or ridiculous.

• My best friend tells me that I am silly to be upset about this.*
• You silly boy; why did you tramp about so long in the cold?*
• I thought it would be silly to be too rude at that stage.*
• That’s a silly question.*
• …a silly hat.*

silliness uncountable noun: She looked round to make sure there was no giggling or silliness.

2. adjective [verb noun ADJECTIVE]

If you do something such as laugh or drink yourself silly, you do it so much that you are unable to think or behave sensibly.

[informal]

• Right now the poor old devil’s drinking himself silly.*
• Poor Donald’s been worrying himself silly.*

Question 15

jocose

Answer 15

inclined to habitual joking or good humored jests

When you need a word to describe something (or someone) that causes or is intended to cause laughter, you might pick “jocose” or a synonym such as “humorous,” “witty,” “facetious,” or “jocular.” Of those terms, “humorous” is the most generic and can be applied to anything that provokes laughter. “Witty” suggests cleverness and a quick mind, while facetious is a word for something that is not meant to be taken seriously. “Jocose” and “jocular” both imply a habitual waggishness and a fondness for joking.

joke (n.)

1660s, joque, “a jest, something done to excite laughter,” from Latin iocus “joke, jest, sport, pastime” (source also of French jeu, Spanish juego, Portuguese jogo, Italian gioco), from Proto-Italic *joko-, from PIE *iok-o- “word, utterance,” from root *yek- (1) “to speak” (cognates: Welsh iaith, Breton iez “language,” Middle Irish icht “people;” Old High German jehan, Old Saxon gehan “to say, express, utter;” Old High German jiht, German Beichte “confession”).