Etymology

make fun of

Today it means: To tease, ridicule or make jokes about, generally in a pejorative manner. Full definition →

Middle English fon
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The story

  1. Middle English · derived fromfon
  2. English todaymake fun of

Recorded 1737. Preserves the older meaning of fun, from Middle English fon, fonne (“foolish, simple, silly”), fun (c. 1700) meaning "a cheat, trick, hoax", from a verb fun meaning "to cheat, trick" (1680s).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.