April fool
1
4.9
- noun
- /ˈeɪprəl fuːl/
:
inocente de abril
- After falling for the prank, he knew he had become an April fool.
Examples
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April fool!
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April fool!
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I had to look to see if this was an April fool.
Blog text (5) -
Somebody's a-makin' the April fool with...
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April fool!
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April fool!
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April fool!
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April fool.
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And I donated one of my kidneys to save your life, and then you said it was an April fool and we had to throw my kidney away.
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For example, when my colleagues and I first presented photographs of levitating frogs (Figure 2), many of our colleagues took them for a hoax, an April fool's joke.
Academic text (1998)
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a person who is the victim of a joke on April 1st' is directly inferable from combining 'April' (the month) with 'fool' (a gullible person); the phrase simply labels someone foolish in or because of April, which a learner who knows both words can deduce. The cultural practice of April Fools' Day exists in many languages, making the composition and intended meaning cross-linguistically recognizable and therefore transparent for a B1 learner.
Etymology
April fool comes from the long tradition of playing playful tricks on April 1, when people try to make others believe a silly story. The person who is tricked is called an April fool, so today it means 'a person who is the victim of a joke on April 1'.