Comedies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of storytelling or performance that uses humor to entertain audiences through amusing situations and characters
2. A creative work designed to provoke laughter by highlighting the absurdities of life and interpersonal interactions
3. Works of drama or cinema intended to amuse through lighthearted and funny content

Etymology: The Greeks gave us the raw materials for this word: "kômos" meant a revel or drunken procession, and "ōidḗ" meant a song. Put together, "kōmōidía" was a song sung at these rowdy festivities, and the Greeks later applied the name to a dramatic genre built on mockery and lively fun. The Romans borrowed it as "cōmoedia," and from there it passed through Middle French into English. The word's core idea has stayed remarkably stable across that journey: it was always tied to revelry and song rather than to any particular plot or ending. English picked it up in the Middle English period, when it was spelled "comedie," and only later settled into the form we use today. "Comedies" is simply the plural of "comedy," so the plural form adds no new history of its own.

Synonyms: farces, humor, satire, dramas, theatrical

Antonyms: tragedies, seriousness, drama, melodrama, sadness