pasquinade

American  

[pas-kwuh-neyd] / ˌpæs kwəˈneɪd /

noun

1. a satire or lampoon, especially one posted in a public place.

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verb (used with object)

pasquinaded, pasquinading

1. to assail in a pasquinade or pasquinades.

pasquinade British  

/ ˌpæskwɪˈneɪd, ˈpæskwɪl /

noun

1. an abusive lampoon or satire, esp one posted in a public place

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verb

1. (tr) to ridicule with pasquinade

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pasquinian
  adjective
• pasquinader
  noun

Etymology

Origin of pasquinade

First recorded in 1650–60; from French, from Italian pasquinata “lampoon, satire,” derivative of Italian Pasquino, supposedly the name of a local Roman schoolmaster (or tailor, or shoemaker, or barber) and the nickname given to a 3rd-century b.c. Roman statue that was unearthed in 1501 and was annually decorated and posted with verses + -ata feminine noun suffix; see origin at -ade ¹

Explanation

A pasquinade is a satire, usually done in writing and posted in public. A skit, flyer, or cartoon can be a pasquinade — as long as its intent is to mock or ridicule something or someone. You can find examples of modern pasquinades on late-night television political sketches and in newspaper political cartoons that mercilessly make fun of public figures. Today, you’re probably more likely to use a synonym for pasquinade, such as lampoon or satire. But neither of those words can say they got their name from Pasquino, a 500-year-old statue in Rome where people posted lampoons and satirical poems.

Example Sentences

Excerpt from Author Feuchtwanger's pasquinade: He opened up his checkbook to the sky But the sky showed no expression.

From Time Magazine Archive

I will cry ‘bravo’ to every pasquinade Dickens lets off on that demented class, which cried out every time they saw that buffalo-skin over-coat appear: ‘The Gods have come down to us.’

From Why a National Literature Cannot Flourish in the United States of North America by Rocchietti, Joseph

The collocation, in this case, was piquant enough to beget a clever pasquinade, which was chalked up at street corners in Paris.

From Chaucer and His England by Coulton, G. G.

A price of two thousand guldens was set on his head, which gave Vondel cause for another trenchant pasquinade.

From Vondel's Lucifer by Vondel, Joost van den

One evil effect of pasquinade and sneer is to put the prospective daughter-in-law on the defensive, and prepare her mind, unconsciously to herself, to regard her future husband's mother as her natural enemy.

From The Secret of a Happy Home (1896) by Harland, Marion