/klaʊn/
OriginFrom earlier clowne, cloyne (“man of rustic or coarse manners, boor, peasant”); likely of North Germanic origin, akin to Icelandic klunni (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Swedish kluns (“clumsy fellow”), all from Middle Low German klunz, from klunt (“pile, lump, something thick”); according to Pokorny, this could be related to a group of Germanic derivatives of Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up; amass”), such as Proto-West Germanic *klott (“lump”), Proto-Germanic *klūtaz (“clod, lump”), *kultaz (“lump, bundle”), etc.
Alternatively, directly from Low German (compare North Frisian klönne (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Dutch kluns (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Dutch kloen (“uncouth person, lout”)), themselves from the same ultimate source as above.
Unlikely from Latin colōnus (“colonist, farmer”), although learned awareness of this term may have influenced semantic development.
- A slapstick performance artist often associated with a circus and usually characterized by bright, oversized clothing, a red nose, face paint, and a brightly colored wig.
“Over there in Norway, the churches all burn down / Let's go dress in goth clothes and get painted like a clown”
- A person who acts in a silly fashion.
“He was regarded as the clown of the school, always playing pranks.”
- A stupid person.
“"The dealers snatched at the state of intellectual exhaustion and scepticism of all values that followed the first world war to abolish values and substitute for them an arbitrary mumbo-jumbo of occul”
“Doc Bruce Banner, belted by gamma rays,
Turns into the Hulk – Ain’t he unglamour-rays! [unglamorous]
Wreckin’ the town with the power of a bull,
Ain’t no monster, clown. Who is as lovable
As ever-lovi”
“Everything’s on the table, the specs are there in the RFP and can’t be changed by some clown in the Air Force who happens to come up with a new idea.”
- obsoleteA man of coarse nature and manners; an awkward fellow; an illbred person; a boor.
“This loutish clown is such that you never saw so ill - favoured a vizar” — The New Arcadia
“[…] three things ought always to be kept under: a mastiff dog, a stone horse and a clown; and really I think a snarling, cross-grained clown to be the most unlucky beast of three.”
- obsoleteOne who works upon the soil; a rustic; a churl; a yokel.
“The clown, the child of nature, without guile.”
“He […] began to descend to familiar questions, endeavouring to accommodate his discourse to the grossness of rustic understandings. The clowns soon found that he did not know wheat from rye, and began”
- A clownfish.
“While the tomato clownfish Amphiprion frenatus has been spawned in captivity, wild-caught tomato clowns are more often seen for sale.”
- intransitiveTo act in a silly or playful fashion.
“Except for Rasheena, the rest of the baby mamas was at least struggling to live halfway right. They used to clown and act shitty whenever they came by Noojie's and saw Carmiesha there. But every last ”
- transitiveTo ridicule, make fun of.
“The show Dismissed was one of my favorites, because I like to see people get clowned.”
“All my comrades were laughing and clowning me, but shit, that didn't stop me from talking more shit.”
Formsclowns(plural) · clowne(alternative, obsolete) · cloyne(alternative, obsolete) · clowns(present, singular, third-person) · clowning(participle, present) · clowned(participle, past) · clowned(past)