Greek word · G2160

εὐτραπελία

eutrapelia

vulgar jesting

Literally 'well-turning, easily turning' (eu, 'well', plus trepō, 'turn'). It can mean versatility, ready wit or agreeable humour. It can also mean glib, flippant, cheap wit: the clever turn of phrase that makes something indecent sound charming, sometimes with a hint of sly cunning.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. · Updated October 23, 2026

What it means

εὐτραπελία, -ας, ἡ

(εὖ, τρέπω),

1. versatility, wit, facetiousness (Hippocr., Plat., al.).

2. = βωμολογία, coarse jesting, ribaldry (Abbott, Essays, 93): Ephesians 5:4.†

SYN.: μωρολογία, see Tr., Syn., § xxxiv (AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Ephesians 5:4

Range of meaning: Literally 'well-turning, easily turning' (eu, 'well', plus trepō, 'turn'). It can mean versatility, ready wit or agreeable humour. It can also mean glib, flippant, cheap wit: the clever turn of phrase that makes something indecent sound charming, sometimes with a hint of sly cunning.
Against the English: KJV and WEB say 'jesting', which a modern reader hears as any joking at all. BSB and ESV say 'crude joking', NIV and NASB say 'coarse joking' or 'coarse jesting', and NLT says 'coarse jokes'. Modern versions add 'crude' or 'coarse' to capture the negative sense that the context requires but the bare word does not always carry.
How it drifted: The Greek word itself had two faces. KJV's bare 'jesting' kept the ambiguity, and modern ears no longer hear the cheap, suggestive sense, so readers take it as condemning humour itself.
Used elsewhere in the period: Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics 4.8, 1128a) treats eutrapelia as a virtue: tasteful wit, the mean between the buffoon who will say anything for a laugh and the boor who cannot take a joke. But he admits that buffoons are often called eutrapeloi too. In Rhetoric 2.12 he calls it 'educated insolence'. Pericles praised Athenians for their eutrapelia, meaning versatility (Thucydides 2.41). Pindar (Pythian 1.92) uses the adjective of slippery, deceitful gains. This is the only use in the New Testament.

Where it appears

Ephesians · 1

Ephesians 5:4 εὐτραπελία crude joking

Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are out of character, but rather thanksgiving.

Here: Literally 'easily turning': talk that turns nimbly, the quick quip. Greek writers could praise this as good wit. Next to obscenity and sexual immorality, though, it points to the clever double meaning and the knowing innuendo that makes shameful things sound amusing.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.