Meaning
Jesting <1,,2160, eutrapelia>
properly denotes "wit, facetiousness, versatility" (lit., "easily turning," from eu, "well," trepo, "to turn"). It was used in the literal sense to describe the quick movements of apes and persons. Pericles speaks of the Athenians of his day (430 B.C.) as distinguished by a happy and gracious "flexibility." In the next century Aristotle uses it of "versatility" in the give and take of social intercourse, quick repartee. In the sixth century, B.C., the poet Pindar speaks of one Jason as never using a word of "vain lightness," a meaning deteriorated, and it came to denote "coarse jesting, ribaldry," as in Eph 5:4, where it follows morologia, "foolish talking."
