lampoon

From French lampon (“satire, mockery, ridicule”), built on French lampons (“let us drink — a popular refrain for scurrilous songs”), from lamper (“to quaff, to swig”).

Littré quotes a satirical song mocking King Jacques II Stuart, fleeing Dublin, in 1691, and returning to France under the escort of Lauzun:

Prenez soin de ma couronne, J'aurai soin de ma personne ;
("Take care of my crown, I will take care of my person")
Lampons ! lampons !

• IPA^(key): /læmˈpuːn/

• Audio (General Australian):

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lampoon (plural lampoons)

1. A written attack or other work ridiculing a person, group, or institution; especially, a satirical one.
   • 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, I.i:

     To say truth, Ma'am, 'tis very vulgar to Print and as my little Productions are mostly Satires and Lampoons I find they circulate more by giving copies in confidence to the Friends of the Parties—

   • 1837, L E L, “Alteration”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides.  In Three Volumes.">…], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, page 22:

     "Dangerous things, sir—dangerous things!" exclaimed Mr. Lintot, drawing a deep breath of air from the open window: "do you know, sir, Curl published a lampoon on Lord Hervey the other day, who said that he would have horsewhipped him if he could have found his way into the city...

lampoon (third-person singular simple present lampoons, present participle lampooning, simple past and past participle lampooned)

1. (transitive) To satirize or poke fun at.
   • 2024 August 26, Stephen Collinson, “Trump’s personal attacks aren’t just who he is. They’re his strategy”, in CNN‎:

     Her tone shift involved former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton lampooning their fellow ex-president as a figure of ridicule. Then Harris closed the trap with a line in her convention speech: “Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences … of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.”

• Thesaurus:defame

• “lampoon”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E Smith, editors (1911), “lampoon”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.