From a Thursday Boston Globe report headlined Watertown shouting match not routine:

It was not at a pub or in an alley.

Instead, the confrontation occurred after a routine session of the Watertown Town Council on Nov. 10, when an ugly shouting match between the police chief and the Town Council president broke out in the council’s back office. A handful of witnesses looked on.

According to an investigative report made public this week, Police Chief Edward P. Deveau made a beeline for the council’s back office shortly after 10 p.m. that day to confront Clyde L. Younger, the council’s former president. Deveau was apparently upset Younger had alluded to “serious allegations’’ about the Police Department publicly without checking with him first.

Younger described Deveau as getting “right in my face’’ and “towering over me screaming and hollering,’’ according to a 17-page investigative report.

Younger said he finally responded to Deveau in similarly jocular language.

What?

I thought jocular meant (American Heritage Dictionary): 1. Characterized by joking. 2. Given to joking.

I must be wrong.