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

• pasquinader noun
• pasquinian adjective

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; -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

The pasquinade with its supplements comprised no less than 351 folios, 280 of which were devoted to the answer proper.

From Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church by Bente, F. (Friedrich)

The inscription, a very poor one, excited considerable ridicule, and a pasquinade was circulated lamenting the absence of the nine Muses on the occasion of its composition.

From Cuba Past and Present by Davey, Richard

But how are we to understand the uses of the pasquinade Hymn? 

From The Homeric Hymns A New Prose Translation; and Essays, Literary and Mythological by Lang, Andrew

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