English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
So I'm trying to write a piece of dialogue and I can't remember this word for the life of me and Google isn't helping. I know it's similar to sarcasm in usage but not quite.
The characters are in a cave. That's the obvious bit.
"Yeah," he said as he pushed himself off the ground. "Where are we?"
"A cave," He said ____
What word should I use. Please help.
The word to express how humour might be delivered in a deadpan or ironic manner is:
drily (also dryly)
ADVERB
- In a matter-of-fact or ironically humorous way.
" 'How very observant', he said drily"
" 'Fifty songs,' I mused. 'Five thousand dollars worth of digital matter,' I added to myself dryly."
" 'We call it the belly of the beast,' she dryly remarks."[Source: Oxford Living Dictionaries]
Merriam-Webster doesn't specifically define the adverb, but gives the following definition for the adjective and notes "dryly also drily adverb":
- marked by matter-of-fact, ironic, or terse manner of expression
a dry wit
has a very dry sense of humor
The key in using drily is that there is an element of humour or irony inherent in the statement but the delivery itself gives no indication of humour or other emotion.
Making a joke that is obvious, and perhaps sometimes inappropriate, is to be facetious:
[Merriam-Webster]
1 : joking or jesting often inappropriately : WAGGISH
// just being facetious
2 : meant to be humorous or funny : not serious
// a facetious remark
In your example, you would use its adverb form.
The characters are obviously in a cave, so:
"A cave," he said facetiously.
