clown

See also: Clown

English

Etymology

Likely from North Germanic, akin to Icelandic klunni (“klutz”) and Old Frisian klönne (“klutz”). Less probable from Latin colonus (“colonist, farmer”), although learned awareness of this term may have influenced semantic development.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: kloun, IPA(key): /klaʊn/
  • Rhymes: -aʊn

Noun

A clown

clown (plural clowns)

  1. A slapstick performance artist often associated with a circus and typically characterised by bright, oversized clothing, a red nose, face paint, and a brightly colored wig.
  2. A person who acts in a silly fashion.
  3. (chiefly Britain) A stupid person.
  4. (obsolete) A man of coarse nature and manners; an awkward fellow; an illbred person; a boor.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Philip Sidney to this entry?)
    • Timothy Nourse, Campania Foelix (1700), 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.
    • Cowper
      The clown, the child of nature, without guile.

Synonyms

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.

Derived terms

See also

French

Etymology

From English clown

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /klun/
  • Audio: (file)
  • Homophone: clowns

Noun

clown m (plural clowns)

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

Further reading

Italian

Noun

clown m (invariable)

  1. clown (artist)

Synonyms

Spanish

Alternative forms

Etymology

From English clown.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /klon/, [klõn]

Noun

clown m (plural clownes)

  1. clown (circus performance artist)

Synonyms

Swedish

Noun

clown c

  1. clown

Declension

Declension of clown 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative clown clownen clowner clownerna
Genitive clowns clownens clowners clownernas

Derived terms

Welsh

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /klɔu̯n/

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

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
clown glown nghlown chlown
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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