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A.Word.A.Day--badinage

Pronunciation Sound Clip RealAudio

This week's theme: words related to repartee.

badinage (bad-NAHZH, BAD-nahzh) noun

Light, playful remarks; banter.

[From French badinage, from badiner (to banter).]

See more usage examples of badinage in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

"The black belt in invective was conspicuously won, however, in his exchange with (the Pulitzer Prizewinner) William Kennedy, whose initial letter of rejection is greeted with a promise to 'jam a bronze plaque far into your small intestine'. Their splenetic badinage is one of the brightest threads in this book." David Profumo; A Good Life; The Daily Telegraph (London, UK); Oct 18, 1997.

X-Bonus

It is one of the maladies of our age to profess a frenzied allegiance to truth in unimportant matters, to refuse consistently to face her where graver issues are at stake. -Janos Arany, poet (1817-1882)

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