Trending: ‘sarcasm,’ ‘sarcastic’

Sarcasm and sarcastic were among our top lookups on April 24th, 2020, after President Trump claimed that his comments the previous day fell into this rhetorical category.

Donald Trump on Friday attempted to clean up a remark he made the previous night about possibly injecting disinfectants into Americans' bodies to kill the coronavirus by saying he was merely being "sarcastic," a claim undermined by video of the comment.
— John T. Bennett, The Independent (London, Eng.), 24 Apr. 2020

We define sarcasm as “a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain,” and “a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language that is usually directed against an individual.” President Trump appears to have a somewhat broader semantic interpretation of this word than we do, as he has previously employed it to retract statements (the last time this word spiked was when Trump said that his comments alleging President Obama had founded ISIS were sarcasm).

Sarcasm and sarcastic may be traced to the Greek word sarkazein, which may be defined as “to tear flesh like dogs,” “bite the lips in rage,” or “speak bitterly, sneer.” Of the two, sarcasm is the older word, with use dating back to 1550.