mock name for a pompous personage of power and pretension, 1880, a word said to have been invented in 1755 by Samuel Foote (1720-1777) in a long passage full of nonsense written to test the memory of actor Charles Macklin (1697-1797), who said he could repeat anything after hearing it once.

"confound, confuse," 1852, a fantastical mock-Latin American English coinage from confound or confuse, originally in "Negro dialect" passages in works such as "J. Thornton Randolph's" pro-slavery "The Cabin and Parlor" (1852, a response to "Uncle Tom's Cabin"), picked up in London publications by the 1860s. Similar formations include confubuscate, conflabberated, etc., and compare discombobulate. Related: Confusticated; confusticating.

1660s, "mocking, scoffing," from Latinized form of Greek skōptikos "given to mockery," from skōptein "to mock, jest." Beekes write of it, "An unexplained formation that must be recent in the prehistory of Greek. The root may be that of [skeptomai] 'to look about' or [skaptō] 'to dig', but neither is immediately obvious. Perhaps the verb is related to skōps 'little horned owl'." Related: Scoptical (1610s).

also courtezan, "a prostitute," 1540s, from French courtisane, from Italian cortigiana "prostitute," literally "woman of the court" (a mock-use or euphemism), fem. of cortigiano "one attached to a court," from corte "court," from Latin cortem (see court (n.)).

An earlier identical word in English meant "a courtier, a member of the papal curia" (early 15c.), from Old French courtisan, the masc. form, from Italian cortigiano.

"rough music, a mock-serenade intended as annoyance or insult," especially as a community way of expressing disapproval of a marriage match, 1735, from French charivari, from Old French chalivali "discordant noise made by pots and pans" (14c.), from Late Latin caribaria "a severe headache," from Greek karebaria "headache," from kare "head" (from PIE root *ker- (1) "horn; head") + barys "heavy," from PIE root *gwere- (1) "heavy." Compare callithumpian.

c. 1600, "a person in despair;" 1640s, "a desperate or reckless man;" mock-Spanish version of desperate (n.) "reckless criminal" (1560s), from Latin desperatus "given up, despaired of," past participle of desperare (see despair (v.)). There was an adjective desperado in Old Spanish, meaning "out of hope, desperate," but apparently it never was used as a noun and it probably has nothing to do with the English word.