Other forms: travesties
A travesty is a grotesque imitation that mocks the real thing. A travesty of justice, a travesty of the truth, make a travesty of it.
A travesty of justice is much the commonest phrase and means a trial that looked like one and was not. The word came from the theatre, where a travesty was a burlesque, and the Italian behind it means to dress up in other clothes.
1nountravestyA grotesque imitation that mocks the real thing.
“The film was a travesty of the novel, changing the ending and cutting half the characters.”
travesty is an imitation.
French travesti means disguised, from Italian travestire, to dress up — trans, across, plus vestire, to clothe.
Proto-Indo-European
*wes-
Proto-Indo-European
*wéstis — dressing
Proto-Italic
*westis — clothing
Latin
vestiō — to clothe, dress
Italian
travestire — to dress up, disguise
French
travesti — disguised, burlesqued
English, today
travesty
Built from
From French travesti (“disguised, burlesqued”), past participle of travestir (“to disguise”), borrowed from Italian travestire (“to dress up, disguise”), from tra- + vestire, from Latin vestiō (“to clothe, dress”), from Proto-Italic westis (“clothing”), from Proto-Indo-European wéstis (“dressing”) from verbal root wes- (“to dress, clothe”); cognate to English wear. a doublet of travesti.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA