boutade

• Meantime his affairs at home went upside down, and his two brothers had a wretched time, where his first boutade was to kick both their wives one morning out of doors, and his own too, and in their stead gave orders to pick up the first three strollers could be met with in the streets. —  A Tale of a Tub
• My third appearance at the Comédie resulted in the following _boutade_ from the pen of the same Sarcey: —  My Double Life The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt
• "_C'est une boutade comme une autre! _" —  The Halo
• SAILLIE, _f. _, élan; éminence; boutade; trait d'esprit brillant et imprévu. —  French Conversation and Composition
• According to M. Guizot, "Tacite a peint les Germains comme M.ntaigne et Rousseau les sauvages, dans un acces d'humeur contre sa patrie: son livre est une satire des moeurs Romaines, l'eloquente boutade d'un patriote philosophe qui veut voir la vertu la, ou il ne rencontre pas la mollesse honteuse et la depravation savante d'une vielle societe." —  History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 1

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus