clown

• clowne, cloyne (obsolete)

From earlier clowne, cloyne (“man of rustic or coarse manners, boor, peasant”), likely of North Germanic origin, akin to Icelandic klunni (“clumsy fellow, klutz”). Compare also North Frisian klönne (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Dutch kluns (“clumsy fellow”). Unlikely from Latin colōnus (“colonist, farmer”), although learned awareness of this term may have influenced semantic development.

• enPR: kloun, IPA^(key): /klaʊn/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊn

A clown

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", 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: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, OCLC 801077108; 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 318419127:

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

   • 1700, Timothy Nourse, Campania Foelix, pp. 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[oseph] Johnson; […], OCLC 228757725:

     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, issues 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.

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

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.
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.

• clown about (British)
• clown around

• coulrophobia
• jester
• jackpudding

Borrowed from English clown.

• IPA^(key): /klɑu̯n/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: clown
• Rhymes: -ɑu̯n

clown m (plural clowns, diminutive clowntje n)

1. clown (entertainer)

• circusclown
• clownsneus
• clownvis

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

From English clown.

• IPA^(key): /klun/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophone: clowns

clown m (plural clowns, feminine clownesse)

1. clown (performer)

   Synonym: (Louisiana) macaque

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

• pantalon clown /pantalon de clown

• “clown”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Unadapted borrowing from English clown.

• IPA^(key): /ˈklawn/[1]
• Rhymes: -awn

clown m (invariable)

1. clown (artist)

   Synonym: pagliaccio

Borrowed from English clown.

• IPA^(key): /klawn/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -awn
• Syllabification: clown

clown m pers

1. (comedy) Alternative spelling of klaun

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

clown m (plural clowni)

1. Obsolete form of clovn.

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

• clon

Unadapted borrowing from English clown.

• IPA^(key): /ˈklon/ [ˈklõn]
• Rhymes: -on

clown m (plural clownes)

1. clown (circus performance artist)

   Synonym: payaso

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

From English clown.

• IPA^(key): /ˈklaʊn/

clown c

1. clown

• pajas

• clownaktig
• clownfisk

• clown in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

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

Borrowed from English clown.

clown m (plural clowniaid)

1. clown

• closwn (colloquial, first-person singular conditional)

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