Meaning

noun language or behavior intended to mock or humiliate

noun the act of deriding or treating with contempt

verb subject to laughter or ridicule

originThe obsolete adjective is borrowed from French ridicule, from Latin rīdiculus (“laughable, comical, amusing, absurd, ridiculous”), from ridere (“to laugh”). The noun is either from French, noun use of adjective, or from Latin rīdiculum, noun use of neuter of rīdiculus. The verb is from the noun or else from French ridiculer, from ridicule.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0