satire

[sat-ahyuh r]

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noun

the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.
a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule.
a literary genre comprising such compositions.

Origin of satire

1500–10; < Latin satira, variant of satura medley, perhaps feminine derivative of satur sated (see saturate)

Related formsnon·sat·ire, noun

Can be confusedburlesque caricature cartoon parody satire (see synonym study at burlesque) (see synonym study at the current entry)satire satyr

Synonyms for satire

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1. See irony¹. 2, 3. burlesque, caricature, parody, travesty. Satire, lampoon refer to literary forms in which vices or follies are ridiculed. Satire, the general term, often emphasizes the weakness more than the weak person, and usually implies moral judgment and corrective purpose: Swift's satire of human pettiness and bestiality. Lampoon refers to a form of satire, often political or personal, characterized by the malice or virulence of its attack: lampoons of the leading political figures.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for satire

caricature, mockery, sarcasm, irony, skit, wit, spoof, banter, parody, burlesque, lampoon, travesty, takeoff, witticism, put-on, raillery, persiflage, pasquinade, squib, causticity

Examples from the Web for satire

Contemporary Examples of satire

And the fact that satire unnerves the intolerant is evidence of its positive power.
Why We Stand With Charlie Hebdo—And You Should Too
John Avlon
January 8, 2015
The 289-page satire follows Morris Feldstein, a pharmaceutical salesman who gets seduced by a lonely receptionist.
Powerful Congressman Writes About ‘Fleshy Breasts’
Asawin Suebsaeng
January 7, 2015
The premise was simple: satire is devastating against tyrants.
The Sony Hack and America’s Craven Capitulation To Terror
David Keyes
December 19, 2014
She called him out for his misogynistic remarks and asked why, if the show was satire like everyone said, Ed had no foils.
Canada’s Subversive Sock Puppet: Ed the Sock Isn’t Afraid to Say Anything
Soraya Roberts
November 13, 2014
The film often floats back and forth between these moments of satire and sadness.
‘Force Majeure’ and the Swedish Family Vacation From Hell
Alex Suskind
October 27, 2014

Historical Examples of satire

The satire was not very brilliant or ingenious; but its meaning was clear.
De Libris: Prose and Verse
Austin Dobson
He had wit and humour, with an inclination to satire, which he indulged rather too much.
Joseph Andrews Vol. 1
Henry Fielding
By the time it reaches me, he will be in his grave; a satire on his own anger, God help him!'
Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit
Charles Dickens
Whether these learned bodies feared the satire of his presence.
The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 58, August, 1862
Various
What a satire on the whole kit of them that word living, so constantly in all their mouths, is!
Wilfrid Cumbermede
George MacDonald

British Dictionary definitions for satire

satire

noun

a novel, play, entertainment, etc, in which topical issues, folly, or evil are held up to scorn by means of ridicule and irony
the genre constituted by such works
the use of ridicule, irony, etc, to create such an effect

Word Origin for satire

C16: from Latin satira a mixture, from satur sated, from satis enough

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for satire

late 14c., "work intended to ridicule vice or folly," from Middle French satire (14c.) and directly from Latin satira "satire, poetic medley," earlier satura, in lanx satura "mixed dish, dish filled with various kinds of fruit," literally "full dish," from fem. of satur "sated" (see saturate).

First used in the literary sense in Latin in reference to a collection of poems in various meters on a variety of subjects by the late republican Roman poet Ennius. The matter of the little that survives of his verse does not seem to be particularly satiric, but in classical Latin the word came to mean especially a poem which assailed the prevailing vices, one after another. Altered in Latin by influence of Greek satyr, on mistaken notion that the literary form is related to the Greek satyr drama (see satyr).

Satire, n. An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author's enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness. In this country satire never had more than a sickly and uncertain existence, for the soul of it is wit, wherein we are dolefully deficient, the humor that we mistake for it, like all humor, being tolerant and sympathetic. Moreover, although Americans are 'endowed by their Creator' with abundant vice and folly, it is not generally known that these are reprehensible qualities, wherefore the satirist is popularly regarded as a sour-spirited knave, and his every victim's outcry for codefendants evokes a national assent. [Ambrose Bierce, "Devil's Dictionary," 1911]

Proper satire is distinguished, by the generality of the reflections, from a lampoon which is aimed against a particular person, but they are too frequently confounded. [Johnson]

[I]n whatever department of human expression, wherever there is objective truth there is satire [Wyndham Lewis, "Rude Assignment," 1950]

For nuances of usage, see humor (n.).

1905, from satire (n.). Related: Satired; satiring.

satire in Culture

satire

A work of literature that mocks social conventions, another work of art, or anything its author thinks ridiculous. Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift, is a satire of eighteenth-century British society.