Question

persiflage noun Unwanted persiflage on television might provoke an impatient audience to hiss or boo, but from an etymological standpoint, no other reaction could be more appropriate. English speakers picked up persiflage from French in the 18th century. Its ancestor is the French verb persifler, which means "to banter" and was formed from the prefix per-, meaning "thoroughly," plus siffler, meaning "to whistle, hiss, or boo." Siffler in turn derived from the Latin verb sibilare, meaning "to whistle or hiss." By the way, sibilare is also the source of sibilant, a word linguists use to describe sounds like those made by "s" and "sh" in sash. That Latin root also underlies the verb sibilate, meaning "to hiss" or "to pronounce with or utter an initial sibilant." : frivolous bantering talk : light raillery

Accepted Answer

March 28, 2015 PER-suh-flahzh Since the final round ended sooner than expected, the quiz show host engaged in persiflage with the contestants until it was time to sign off.   "The pleasant research I did for this story-in which coffee is equated with romance-led me to discover the famous cafés of Turin…. As in Prague, Paris, or Vienna, they have for generations been arenas for aristocratic persiflage, intellectual gossip, even revolutionary ideas." - Andrea Lee, Gourmet, May 2004

Word	persiflage
Date	March 28, 2015
Type	noun
Syllables	PER-suh-flahzh
Etymology	Unwanted persiflage on television might provoke an impatient audience to hiss or boo, but from an etymological standpoint, no other reaction could be more appropriate. English speakers picked up persiflage from French in the 18th century. Its ancestor is the French verb persifler, which means "to banter" and was formed from the prefix per-, meaning "thoroughly," plus siffler, meaning "to whistle, hiss, or boo." Siffler in turn derived from the Latin verb sibilare, meaning "to whistle or hiss." By the way, sibilare is also the source of sibilant, a word linguists use to describe sounds like those made by "s" and "sh" in sash. That Latin root also underlies the verb sibilate, meaning "to hiss" or "to pronounce with or utter an initial sibilant."
Examples	Since the final round ended sooner than expected, the quiz show host engaged in persiflage with the contestants until it was time to sign off. "The pleasant research I did for this story-in which coffee is equated with romance-led me to discover the famous cafés of Turin…. As in Prague, Paris, or Vienna, they have for generations been arenas for aristocratic persiflage, intellectual gossip, even revolutionary ideas." - Andrea Lee, Gourmet, May 2004
Definition	: frivolous bantering talk : light raillery

Persiflage Meaning Verb French Latin March Noun Per Suh Flahzh