ridicule

Etymology 1

The obsolete adjective is borrowed from French ridicule, from Latin rīdiculus (“laughable, comical, amusing, absurd, ridiculous”), from ridere (“to laugh”). The noun is either from French, noun use of adjective, or from Latin rīdiculum, noun use of neuter of rīdiculus. The verb is from the noun or else from French ridiculer, from ridicule.

verb

1. (transitive) to criticize or disapprove of someone or something through scornful jocularity; to make fun of
   His older sibling constantly ridiculed him with sarcastic remarks.

noun

1. derision; mocking or humiliating words or behaviour
   Safe from the Bar, the Pulpit, and the Throne, / Yet touch'd and sham'd by Ridicule alone. 1738, Alexander Pope, Epilogue to the Satires: Dialogue II
2. An object of sport or laughter; a laughing stock.
   [Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries. 1857, Henry Thomas Buckle, History of Civilization in England
3. The quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness.

adj

1. (obsolete) ridiculous
   late 17th century, John Aubrey, Brief Lives This action […] became so ridicule.

Etymology 2

From French ridicule, probably jocular alteration of réticule.

noun

1. (now historical) A small woman's handbag; a reticule.
   I hastily drew my empty hand from my Ridicule. c. 1825, Frances Burney, Journals and Letters, Penguin, published 2001, page 455