Can someone tell me what "お戯れを" means? I came across this in a Japanese drama. I can't quite figure out if this is almost like a formal and polite request to make somebody stop 'kidding around' or if it's something else completely. In what context can this be used?
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お[戯]{たわむ}れを is mainly heard in samurai dramas. Typically, a samurai or a maid says this to their master in the sense of "You must be joking" or "You're not serious, are you?" In dramas set in modern Japan, an old butler- or detective-like character may say this, too.
A more common equivalent in modern Japanese is ご冗談を.
EDIT: You may be wondering which verb is omitted after を, but there are no "long" versions of these expressions.
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1Suggest changing 'owner' to 'master'. – BJCUAI Mar 06 '19 at 21:46
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Even if there’s no actual longer expression, isn’t the verb implicitly 言う? (Although it’d be unclear how to conjugate it.) – Darius Jahandarie Mar 07 '19 at 14:16
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Is this pronounced as おじゃれ or おたわむれ? – istrasci Mar 07 '19 at 20:16
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1@DariusJahandarie I'm not sure,.. We say 嘘を言え, but 嘘を makes no sense. We say ご冗談を, but ご冗談を言え makes no sense to me. – naruto Mar 08 '19 at 02:26
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@istrasci Chocolate added the reading :) – naruto Mar 08 '19 at 02:27
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@naruto たしかに… 笑 – Darius Jahandarie Mar 08 '19 at 06:43