Ribaldrie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Coarse, earthy joking about sex and the body ; crude or indecent language meant to amuse listeners
2. Bawdy, irreverent humor full of sexual innuendo ; vulgar talk or jesting that offends polite company
3. Rowdy, lewd jesting that delights in the earthy and obscene ; indecent words or jokes of a crude sort

Etymology: Before it meant bawdy talk, the root of this word described a kind of person. Old French "ribaud" meant a low-born servant or retainer, often a rough soldier or camp follower, and the coarse manners attributed to such people gradually became the word's chief sense. The Old French suffix "-erie" turned a noun into the conduct or behaviour associated with it, so the word came to name lewd, rough talk, and English borrowed it in the Middle Ages. The earlier origin of "ribaud" is uncertain. Scholars have proposed Germanic sources, but none is firmly established. The social-status sense is the surest clue to how the word developed.