# comedian
## English
### Etymology

From Latin cōmoedia +‎ -an, perhaps modelled on Middle French comédien. By surface analysis, comedy +‎ -an.

### Pronunciation

* (US) IPA: /kəˈmiːdi.ən/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)

### Noun

comedian (plural comedians) (feminine: comedienne)
* An entertainer who performs in a humorous manner, especially by telling jokes.
    Synonyms: comic, laughsmith
* (by extension) Any person who is humorous or amusing, either characteristically or on a particular occasion.
    Synonyms: card, cutup, gagster, joker, wag, wit
* (dated) A person who performs in theatrical plays.
    Synonyms: actor, player, thespian
    Coordinate term: tragedian
** c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:[…] the quick comedians Extemporally will stage us, and present Our Alexandrian revels;
** 1714, Susanna Centlivre, The Wonder, London: E. Curll and A. Bettesworth, Preface,
    I Don’t pretend to write a Preface, either to point out the Beauties, or to excuse the Errors, a judicious Reader may possibly discover in the following Scenes, but to give those excellent Comedians their Due, to whom, in some Measure the best Dramatick Writers are oblig’d.
** 1755, George Colman, The Connaisseur‎, volume 1, London: R. Baldwin, page 1:When a Comedian, celebrated for his excellence in the part of Shylock, first undertook that character, he made daily visits to the center of business, the ’Change, and the adjacent Coffee-houses; that by a frequent intercourse and conversation with “the unforeskinn’d race,” he might habituate himself to their air and deportment.
** 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 51, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:Becky, the nightingale, took the flowers which he threw to her and pressed them to her heart with the air of a consummate comedian.
* (obsolete) A writer of comedies.
    Coordinate term: tragedian
** a. 1587 (date written), Phillip Sidney [i.e., Philip Sidney], An Apologie for Poetrie. […], London: […] [James Roberts] for Henry Olney, […], published 1595, →OCLC; republished as Edward Arber, editor, An Apologie for Poetrie (English Reprints), London: [Alexander Murray & Son], 1 April 1868, →OCLC, pages 44–45:This doth the Comedy handle ſo in our priuate and domeſtical matters, as with hearing it, we get as it were an experience, what is to be looked for of a nigardly Demea: of a crafty Danus: of a flattering Gnato: of a vaine glorious Thraſo: and not onely to know what effects are to be expected, but to know who be ſuch, by the ſignifying badge giuen them by the Comedian.
** 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 5:Neither is it recorded that the writings of those old Comedians were supprest, though the acting of them were forbid;
** 1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, London: Whitestone et al., Volume 3, Lecture 47, p. 377,
    […] the Dramatic Author, in whom the French glory most, and whom they justly place at the head of all their Comedians, is, the famous Moliere.

#### Synonyms

* funnyman/funnywoman

#### Hypernyms

* (male comedian): comedian (male and female)

#### Hyponyms

* (comedian, male and female): comedian (male), comedienne (female)

#### Derived terms

* prop comedian
* sitcomedian

#### Descendants

* → German: Comedian
* → Indonesian: komedian

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ “comedian, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

### Anagrams

* daemonic, demoniac, dæmonic, midocean

## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from French comédien. By surface analysis, comedie +‎ -an.

### Noun

comedian m (plural comedieni)
* comedian