travesty

From French travesti (“disguised, burlesqued”), past participle of travestir (“to disguise”), borrowed from Italian travestire (“to dress up, disguise”), from tra- (“across”) +‎ vestire (“to dress”), from Latin vestiō (“to clothe, dress”), from Proto-Italic *westis (“clothing”), from Proto-Indo-European *wéstis (“dressing”) from verbal root *wes- (“to dress, clothe”); cognate to English wear. Doublet of travesti.

• enPR: trăvʹĭs-tē, trăvʹəs-tē, IPA^(key): /ˈtɹæv.ɪs.ti/, /ˈtɹæv.əs.ti/

• Audio (US):

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• Hyphenation: trav‧es‧ty

travesty (plural travesties)

1. An absurd, grotesque, misrepresentative or grossly inferior likeness or imitation.

   A battlefield trial is a travesty of justice.

   • 1845, Thomas De Quincey, William Godwin:

     The second edition is not a recast, but absolutely a travesty of the first.

   • 2022 January 12, Dr. Joseph Brennan, “Castles: ruined and redeemed by rail”, in RAIL, number 948, page 56:

     In 1844, objection was raised to the Furness Railway's Dalton & Barrow line, when it was revealed that the line would pass directly through Furness Abbey. A re-route was achieved, with the line skirting the abbey ruins instead - although many continued to see the intrusion as a travesty against antiquity and the scenic beauty of the site.

2. A pastiche, parody, or stylistic imitation; a burlesque literary or artistic imitation (typically of a more serious work).
3. (sometimes proscribed) An appalling event, situation or outcome (especially in relation to another outcome to which it is grossly inferior).
   • 2018 February 10, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham Hotspur 1 - 0 Arsenal”, in BBC‎^[1]:

     Spurs survived the scare - and such was their domination after the break that it would have been a travesty had Arsenal escaped Wembley, hosting a Premier League record attendance of 83,222, with a draw.

• caricature
• feign

• veracity

• farce

travesty (third-person singular simple present travesties, present participle travestying, simple past and past participle travestied)

1. (transitive) To make a travesty of; to parody.

• travestier

• “travesty”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “travesty”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “travesty”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “travesty”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.