travesty means an absurd, grotesque, misrepresentative or grossly inferior likeness or imitation. It carries an Arena rating of 1883, earned across 20 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, travesty ranks #93 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #100 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #432 of 17,135 for Most Malleable Words, #1,007 of 17,105 for Most Storied Words.
travesty is pronounced /ˈtɹæv.ɪs.ti/.
Why “travesty” is a great word
A grotesque, absurd, or grossly inferior imitation or misrepresentation of something, especially of a serious work or principle. From French travesti (“disguised, burlesqued”), from Italian travestire (“to dress up, disguise”), from tra- (“across”) + vestire (“to dress”), from Latin vestiō (“to clothe, dress”), from PIE root *wes- (“to dress, clothe”); first attested in English in the 1670s as a literary term for a burlesque treatment. Unlike “parody,” which critiques through knowing humor, or “veracity,” which serves fidelity to truth, a travesty is a distortion born of incompetence or malice, a dressing-up that becomes a mockery. It is a war crimes tribunal conducted as puppet theater, a sacred text rewritten for propaganda, or a surgeon performing the gestures of healing while the patient bleeds out—each the same shape as its original, but hollowed, inhabited by something else entirely, and somehow worse for being recognizable at all.
Etymology
From French travesti (“disguised, burlesqued”), past participle of travestir (“to disguise”), borrowed from Italian travestire (“to dress up, disguise”), from tra- (“across”) + vestire (“to dress”), from Latin vestiō (“to clothe, dress”), from Proto-Italic *westis (“clothing”), from Proto-Indo-European *wéstis (“dressing”) from verbal root *wes- (“to dress, clothe”); cognate to English wear. Doublet of travesti.
noun
- An absurd, grotesque, misrepresentative or grossly inferior likeness or imitation.e.g.“A battlefield trial is a travesty of justice.”
- A pastiche, parody, or stylistic imitation; a burlesque literary or artistic imitation (typically of a more serious work).
- An appalling event, situation or outcome (especially in relation to another outcome to which it is grossly inferior).
verb
- To make a travesty of; to parody.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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