Noun

Singular sarcasm

Plural sarcasms

sarcasm (plural sarcasms)

1. (uncountable) A form of humor that is marked by mocking with irony, sometimes conveyed in speech with vocal over-emphasis. Insincerely saying something which is the opposite of one's intended meaning, often to emphasize how unbelievable or unlikely it sounds if taken literally, thereby illustrating the obvious nature of one's intended meaning.
2. (countable) An act of sarcasm.

Synonyms

• (uncountable): derision, facetiousness, irony, ridicule, satire
• (countable): taunt, gibe

Derived terms

• sarcastic

Sarcasm is the rhetorical device of using a characterization of something or someone in order to express contempt. It is closely connected with irony, in that the two are often combined in the same statement.

Origin of the term

It is first recorded in English in The Shepheardes Calender in 1579:

Tom piper) An Ironical [Sarcasmus], spoken in derision of these rude wits, which make more account of a rhyming Rimbaud, then of skill grounded upon learning and judgment. —Edmund Spenser

It comes from the ancient Greek σαρκάζω (sarkazo) meaning 'to tear flesh' but the ancient Greek word for the rhetorical concept of taunting was instead χλευασμός (chleyasmόs). Sarcasm appears several times in the Old Testament, for example:

Lo, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? —Achish, king of Gath , I Sam 21:10-15

Usage

Hostile, critical comments may be expressed in an ironic way such as saying "don't work too hard" to a lazy worker. The use of irony introduces an element of humour which may make the criticism seem more polite and less aggressive, but understanding the subtlety of this usage requires second-order interpretation of the speaker's intentions. This sophisticated understanding is lacking in some people with brain damage, dementia and autism, and this perception has been located by MRI in the right parahippocampal gyrus.

Sarcasm (from the Greek σαρκασμός (sarkasmos), mockery, sarcasm) is a form of bitter or cutting irony.

Quotes

• Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the Devil; for which reason I have, long since, as good as renounced it.
  • Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus (1833-1834), book II, ch. IV

• Sarcasm: the last refuge of modest and chaste-souled people when the privacy of their soul is coarsely and intrusively invaded.
  • Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes From the Underground (1864)

• Sarcasm and compassion are two of the qualities that make life on earth tolerable.
  • Nick Hornby, Songbook (2003)

• Sarcasm is the refuge of losers.
  • Richard Hoover, Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

• Sarcasm is not the rapier of wit its wielders seem to believe it to be, but merely a club: it may, by dint of brute force, occasionally raise bruises, but it never cuts or pierces.
  • Rex Stout, as Nero Wolfe.

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