jocose \joh-KOHS, juh-\,
adjective:
given to or characterized by joking; jesting; humorous; playful: a jocose and amusing manner.
The jocose talk of hay-makers is best at a distance; like those clumsy bells round the cows' necks, it has rather a coarse sound when it comes close, and may even grate on your ears painfully...
-- George Eliot, "Adam Bede," 1859
Lord Boardotrade was there, making semi-jocose speech, quite in the approved way for a cognate paterfamilias.
-- Anthony Trollope, "Ayala's Angel," 1878
Jocose comes from the Latin jocōsus meaning "joking." It entered English in the 1600s.
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