Droll means amusing in a dry and unusual way. A droll remark, droll humour, rather droll.
The humour is understated and slightly odd, delivered without any signal that a joke is happening — which is exactly why droll is not the same as funny. It is a compliment when applied to wit and faintly patronising when applied to a person. Note that the word came from French and before that from a Dutch word for a comical little man.
1adjectivedrollAmusing in a dry and unusual way.
“He has a droll sense of humour and tells jokes with a perfectly straight face.”
synonyms: wry, dryly funny
droll is a quality of dry humour.
French drole meant a buffoon, from a Middle Dutch word for a comical little fellow. The adjective sense followed the noun.
Proto-Germanic
*truzlą
Old Norse
troll
Middle Dutch
drol — fat little man, goblin
Old French
drolle — one who lives luxuriously
Middle French
drolle — a merry fellow, pleasant rascal
French
drôle — comical, odd, funny
English, today
droll
Built from
From French drôle (“comical, odd, funny”), from drôle (“buffoon”) from Middle French drolle (“a merry fellow, pleasant rascal”) from Old French drolle (“one who lives luxuriously”), from Middle Dutch drol (“fat little man, goblin”), itself from Old Norse troll, from Proto-Germanic truzlą. a doublet of drôle and troll.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA