Japery is joking and playing tricks. Enough of this japery, a bit of japery, japery and mischief.
It is archaic and deliberately so: nobody uses it without knowing it sounds old, which makes it a joke in itself. A jape is a single trick, and japes belong to school stories of a century ago along with wheezes and larks.
1nounjaperyJoking and playing tricks.
“The boys' japery, like hiding the teacher's chalk, was harmless but annoying.”
japery is a joking.
Middle English
japen — to deceive, play tricks on; act foolishly, joke; have sex with
English
jape
English, today
japery
Built from
From jape + -ery. jape comes from Middle English japen (“to deceive, play tricks on; act foolishly, joke; have sex with”), of uncertain origin, but perhaps combining Old French - japper (“to bark, howl, scream; chatter, gossip”) with gaber (“to mock, deride”). See also gab, Old Occitan japar, jaupar (“to bark, yelp, yap”), related to Old Saxon galpōn (“to cry loudly, make a noise, brag”) (Low German galpen (“to bark, howl, scream”)), Middle High German gelpfen (“to scream, bark, boast, proclaim”), Old Norse gjálpa (“to yelp”) (dialectal Swedish galpa (“to cry, screech”)). More at yelp, yawp, yap.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA