clown

English

Alternative forms

• clowne, cloyne (obsolete)

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.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kloun, IPA^(key): /klaʊn/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊn

Noun

English Wikipedia has an article on:

clown

Wikipedia

clown (plural clowns)

1. 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.
   • 2008, Lich King, “Black Metal Sucks”, in Toxic Zombie Onslaught:

     Over there in Norway, the churches all burn down / Let's go dress in goth clothes and get painted like a clown

2. A person who acts in a silly fashion.

   He was regarded as the clown of the school, always playing pranks.

3. A stupid or badly-behaved person.
   • 2013, Kim Stanley Robinson, The Gold Coast: Three Californias (Wild Shore Triptych; 2)‎, Tom Doherty Associates, →ISBN, page 122:

     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.

   • 2017, Arron Crascall, See Ya Later: The World According to Arron Crascall:

     '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.

4. (obsolete) A man of coarse nature and manners; an awkward fellow; an illbred person; a boor.
   • a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the page number)”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912, →OCLC:

     This loutish clown is such that you never saw so ill - favoured a vizar

   • 1700, Timothy Nourse, Campania Foelix, pages 15–16:

     […] 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.

5. (obsolete) One who works upon the soil; a rustic; a churl; a yokel.
   • 1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, , London: J Johnson;  , →OCLC:

     The clown, the child of nature, without guile.

   • August 25, 1759, Samuel Johnson, The Idler No. 71

     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;

6. A clownfish.
   • 2006, Tropical Fish Hobbyist, volume 54, numbers 5-8, page 32:

     While the tomato clownfish Amphiprion frenatus has been spawned in captivity, wild-caught tomato clowns are more often seen for sale.

Synonyms

• (person who acts in a silly fashion): See Thesaurus:fool, jester, & laughingstock

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

clown (third-person singular simple present clowns, present participle clowning, simple past and past participle clowned)

1. (intransitive) To act in a silly or playful fashion.
   • 2006, Noire , Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 128:

     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.

2. (transitive, African-American Vernacular) To ridicule.

   Synonym: clown on

   • 2002, Vibe, volume 10, number 11, page 62:

     The show Dismissed was one of my favorites, because I like to see people get clowned.

   • 2017, Darrell Smith, Miracle Baby:

     All my comrades were laughing and clowning me, but shit, that didn't stop me from talking more shit.

Derived terms

• clown about (British)
• clown around
• clownophobia

See also

• coulrophobia
• jester
• jackpudding

References

Basque

Etymology

From English clown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klau̯n/
• Rhymes: -au̯n
• Hyphenation: clown

Noun

clown anim

1. clown (entertainer)

   Synonym: pailazo

Declension

Further reading

• "clown" in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia , euskaltzaindia.eus

Dutch

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:

clown

Wikipedia ^nl

Etymology

Borrowed from English clown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klɑu̯n/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: clown
• Rhymes: -ɑu̯n

Noun

clown m (plural clowns, diminutive clowntje n)

1. clown (entertainer)

Derived terms

• circusclown
• clownsneus
• clownvis

See also

• august
• harlekijn
• paljas
• pierrot
• nar
• witte clown
• zot

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English clown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klun/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophone: clowns

Noun

clown m (plural clowns, feminine clownesse)

1. clown (performer)

   Synonym: (Louisiana) macaque

2. clown (person who acts in a comic way)

Derived terms

• pantalon clown /pantalon de clown

Further reading

• “clown”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Italian

Italian Wikipedia has an article on:

clown

Wikipedia ^it

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English clown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈklawn/
• Rhymes: -awn

Noun

clown m (invariable)

1. clown (artist)

   Synonym: pagliaccio

References

Polish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English clown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klawn/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -awn
• Syllabification: clown

Noun

clown m pers

1. (comedy) Alternative spelling of klaun

Declension

Derived terms

Further reading

• clown in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• clown in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Noun

clown m (plural clowni)

1. Alternative form of clovn

Declension

References

• clown in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

Spanish

Alternative forms

• clon

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English clown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈklon/
• Rhymes: -on

Noun

clown m (plural clownes)

1. clown (circus performance artist)

   Synonym: payaso

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

• “clown”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Swedish

Etymology

From English clown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈklaʊn/

Noun

clown c

1. clown

Declension

Synonyms

• pajas

Derived terms

• clownaktig
• clownfisk

References

• clown in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klou̯n/
• IPA^(key): /klɔu̯n/
• Rhymes: -ou̯n

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English clown.

Noun

clown m (plural clowniaid)

1. clown

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

• closwn (colloquial, first-person singular conditional)

Verb

clown

1. first-person plural present/future of cloi
2. first-person singular imperfect/conditional of cloi
3. (literary) first-person plural imperative of cloi

Mutation