"sukh'riya..."

Can you believe I was wondering (and googling) what the word for "irony" is in 3arabi, and this phrase actually came up as a post on some blog: 'what's the Arabic word for "irony"...?'

Unfortunately it was written by an American standup comedian who is also a writer and an army reservist. Do I want to continue? (Yep, it was anti-Arab and anti-Islamic, supposedly commenting on the controversy about those cartoons in the Danish newspaper).
Enough. I don't even want to begin to imagine the amount of racism and Islamaphobia in cyberspace...

Back to "irony".

Well, I do know the word
"mas'kharra"
which in my old green Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Arabic means "masquerade / object of ridicule, laughingstock / ridiculous, droll, ludicrous"

and there is "sukh'riya"
which is "scorn, derision, mockery, irony..."

all coming from the verb / root
"sakhira"
"to laugh, scoff, jeer, sneer, mock, ridicule, deride, make fun"

In the last couple of years my favourite irony has been experienced through the contemporary poetry of several local Iraqi poets. (go Auburn! go Parramatta!).
Often difficult to translate effectively into English, the whimsy within a few short paragraphs can mask a depth of nuances that I can only ever float on the edge of...