Facetious comes from French facetieux, from facetie ('jest'), from Latin facetia ('jest, witticism'), from facetus ('witty, elegant'). The development is chiefly a borrowing or learned continuation, carrying an older form and meaning into English rather than building the word from a purely native base. In present use, it is used as an adjective meaning "treating serious matters with inappropriate or flippant humor", so the historical material remains connected with the current sense rather than standing as bare ancestry. The wider English family includes derivatives such as facetiously and facetiousness and related forms such as facetiae, showing how the same historical material continues to organize neighboring vocabulary. The named historical forms include Latin facetia and Latin facetus, keeping the history tied to concrete forms rather than a loose resemblance.