† cocassen.
Obsolete.
Used by Bale for a female cook (as if cookess); but cf. French cocasse dialect ‘femme ou fille ridicule, femme ou fille ivrogne’, and see Littré.
Π
1551 J. Bale Actes Eng. Votaryes: 2nd Pt. f. lxxvij Their process was all agaynst the cocasses or she cookes of ye curates.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1891; most recently modified version published online September 2019).
cocasseadj.
/kə(ʊ)ˈkas/ Droll, ridiculous.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > pleasure > laughter > causing laughter > [adjective] > comical
merryc1390
pleasant1553
comical1575
mowsome1596
zany1616
burlesque1656
humoursome1656
farce-like1681
foolish1691
farcical1715
amusive1727
farciful1731
funny1739
farcic1763
quizzical1785
quizzy1785
quizzish1792
rib-tickling1809
smileable1830
cocasse1868
priceless1907
skit1914
funny-ha-ha1916
gas1955
1868 W. James Let. 12 Feb. in R. B. Perry Thought & Char. W. James (1935) I. 262 I took up Balzac's Modeste Mignon the other day... It must be one of the very early ones, for the extraordinary research and effort in the style is perfectly cocasse.
1960 J. Lodwick Asparagus Trench 7 A collaboration as cocasse as any since that between Balzac and certain long-extinct copper mines.
Derivatives
cocasserie n. that which is amusing or bizarre.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > pleasure > laughter > causing laughter > [noun] > one who or that which is comical
comedy1535
toy1542
jest1602
joke1670
comic1674
high comedy1707
humorous1753
comicality1796
funny1852
funniosity1871
hot sketch1917
pisser1918
riot1919
panic1921
cocasserie1934
yell1938
mess1952
crack-up1961
1934 C. Lambert Music Ho! ii. 123 In spite of his [sc. Satie's] verbal wit, and his many blagues and cocasseries, no composer, not even Debussy, took a more essentially serious view of his art.
1963 Listener 7 Feb. 260/3 Two items which the late James Agate would have termed cocasseries.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1891; most recently modified version published online September 2018).
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n.1551
adj.1868