clown
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From 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.
Inflected forms:
form: clowns
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: clowne
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: cloyne
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: clowns
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: clowning
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: clowned
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: clowned
pos: verb
tags: past
form: clowne
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: cloyne
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
examples: Over there in Norway, the churches all burn down / Let's go dress in goth clothes and get painted like a clown
gloss: A person who acts in a silly fashion.
pos: noun
examples: He was regarded as the clown of the school, always playing pranks.
gloss: A stupid person.
pos: noun
examples: "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 occultism and pseudo-Freudianism, which they tagged on to the works of studio clowns like Picasso and Modigliani and the like."
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-lovin’ Hulk? - Hulk! Hulk!
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.
'Breaking my sister's heart then getting pissed with his mates in the very next pub while she's sobbing alone?' I dragged this clown away from the fruitie and back to Amy next door, running my mouth off at him as we went.
gloss: A man of coarse nature and manners; an awkward fellow; an illbred person; a boor.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
examples: This loutish clown is such that you never saw so ill - favoured a vizar
[…] 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.
gloss: One who works upon the soil; a rustic; a churl; a yokel.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
examples: 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 to despise him; one of the boys, by pretending to show him a bird's nest, decoyed him into a ditch; […]
gloss: A clownfish.
pos: noun
examples: While the tomato clownfish Amphiprion frenatus has been spawned in captivity, wild-caught tomato clowns are more often seen for sale.
gloss: To act in a silly or playful fashion.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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 one of them ended up being grateful to her for the things she did for their kids.
gloss: To ridicule, make fun of.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
Synonyms: jester
and laughingstock
Related words: coulrophobia
jester
jackpudding
Derived words: assclown
ass clown
beclown
class clown
clownage
clown anemone
clown beetle
clown car
clown-car primary
clowncel
clowncore
clown doctor
clowndom
clownery
clowness
clownette
clown fish
clownfish
clownhood
clown horn
clowniness
clownish
clownism
clownless
clownlike
clownly
clown mantis shrimp
clownness
clown nose
clownology
clown prince
clown princess
clownship
clown shoe
clown show
clownstep
clown therapy
clown world
clussy
laughing clown
rodeo clown
sea clown
zioclown
clown about
clown around
clownophobia
Translations: