ironical

The word 'ironical' traces its lineage to the Greek comic tradition. It originates from eirōneía, a term describing the feigned ignorance and deceptive understatement employed by the eirōn, a character who outwitted the boastful alazōn. This concept of dissimulation passed into Latin as ironia. The modern English form was built by adding the adjectival suffix '-ic' (from Latin -icus) to the stem 'iron-', and later reinforced with another adjectival suffix '-al' (from Latin -alis). Thus, the literal construction 'pertaining to dissimulation' evolved into the contemporary sense describing speech that implies the opposite of its literal meaning or situations that pointedly defy expectations.

Structure: iron (dissimulation) + ic (adjective suffix) + al (adjective suffix) - iron: From Latin ironia, from Greek eirōneía 'dissimulation, feigned ignorance'. The root eirōn was a stock character in Greek comedy, a dissembler. - ic: A suffix forming adjectives, from Latin -icus, Greek -ikos, indicating 'of, pertaining to'. - al: A suffix forming adjectives, from Latin -alis, indicating 'of the kind of, pertaining to'.