It’s apparently attested since at least the 2nd century BCE; Roman playwright Plautus is usually credited with coining the term.
Comment on Lawyer here: I concur!
slothrop@lemmy.ca 5 days agoThe Germans invented it first, with ‘tragikkomeßdykompenbursteißn’ *
*disclaimer: not 100% sure
Evkob@lemmy.ca 5 days ago
TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 days ago
I love the joke, but there is actually a German word for this: Tragikomödie.
It is a compound noun formed by combining Tragödie (tragedy) and Komödie (comedy).
This term was notably used in German Romanticism and later in 20th-century drama (for example like Brecht or Dürrenmatt) to describe works that refuse to fit neatly into a single emotional category.