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Absurdity is the state or condition of being unreasonable, meaningless, or so unsound as to be irrational. "Absurd" is the adjective used to describe absurdity, e.g., "Tyler and the boys laughed at the absurd situation."[1] It derives from the Latin absurdum meaning "out of tune".[2] The Latin surdus means "deaf", implying stupidity.[1] Absurdity is contrasted with being realistic or reasonable[3] In general usage, absurdity may be synonymous with nonsense, meaninglessness, fancifulness, foolishness, bizarreness, wildness. In specialized usage, absurdity is related to extremes in bad reasoning or pointlessness in reasoning; ridiculousness is related to extremes of incongruous juxtaposition, laughter, and ridicule; and nonsense is related to a lack of meaningfulness. Absurdism is a concept in philosophy related to the notion of absurdity.
The term absurdity has been used throughout history regarding foolishness and extremely poor reasoning to form beliefs.[4] In Aristophanes' 5th century BC comedy The Wasps, his protagonist Philocleon learned the "absurdities" of Aesop's Fables, considered to be unreasonable fantasy and not real.[5]
- ^ a b Webster's Dictionary
- ^ Wordreference.com
- ^ Synonyms on Thesaurus.com
- ^ Absurdities – Webster's Timeline Dictionary
- ^ The Wasps, Parmenides