4 Comments

1. texasfriend
   Posted September 10, 2005 at 7:57 am | Permalink

   Actually, the words ludic and ludicrous share a common root word: (Latin)”ludus”, which means “to play”. But they don’t get there exactly the same way. Ludicrous is from the Latin word, “ludicrus”, “sportive”, which is derived from ludus. But ludic comes from the French, “ludique”, from “ludus”. Thanks for the new word! (And I hope all that made sense!)

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2. Suzi
   Posted September 10, 2005 at 9:15 am | Permalink

   Ha, I didn’t get up early enough! And some other Texas friend knew more about it than I did. I did, however, look it up and this was the etymology for ludicrous from the Online Etymological Dictionary:

   1619, “pertaining to play or sport,” from L. ludicrus, from ludicrum “source of amusement, joke,” from ludere “to play.” Sense of “ridiculous” is from 1782.

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3. texasfriend
   Posted September 10, 2005 at 10:07 am | Permalink

   No, she didn’t know more, she just found a different online dictionary. I think I used the American Heritage Dictionary. Etymology must be a fascinating study… how do they KNOW exactly where certain words come from? And how are “ludus” and “ludere” related, or different…?

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4. Tim
   Posted September 10, 2005 at 4:21 pm | Permalink

   Ludus is a noun that means “game” or “play.” Ludere is the verb “to play” or “to tease.” Ludicrus is an adjective and ludicrum is a noun apparently derived from it.

   I wonder, did French ludique (an adjective) come directly from ludus, or is it derived from ludicrum or ludicrus?

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