buffoon

English

Etymology

From Middle French bouffon, from Italian buffone (“jester”), from buffare (“to puff out the cheeks”)

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -uːn

Noun

buffoon (plural buffoons)

1. One who acts in a silly or ridiculous fashion; a clown or fool.
2. (pejorative) An unintentionally ridiculous person.

Usage notes

• In the United States the term is used most commonly to describe inappropriate, clownish figures on the public stage; here the behavior of a variety of public figures have caused them to be described as buffoons by their political opponents.
• In the UK the term is used more broadly, to describe such people who are held in popular regard but who nevertheless engender amusement with their pronouncements and acts.

Derived terms

• buffoonery

Translations

one who acts in a silly or ridiculous fashion

• Arabic: مهرج (ar) (muharrij) m
• Bulgarian: шут (bg) (šut) m, палячо (bg) (paljáčo) n
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 小丑 (cmn) (xiǎochǒu)

• Dutch: clown (nl) m
• Finnish: ilveilijä (fi), narri (fi), pelle (fi)
• French: bouffon (fr) m

• German: Hanswurst (de) m
• Hungarian: pojáca (hu)
• Russian: шут (ru) (šut) m, паяц (ru) (pajác) m, скоморох (ru) (skomoróx) m, фигляр (ru) (figljár) m, буффон (ru) (buffón) m
• Swedish: pajas (sv)

Verb

buffoon (third-person singular simple present buffoons, present participle buffooning, simple past and past participle buffooned)

1. To behave like a buffoon
   • 1988 January 22, Henry Sheehan, “Little Boy Blue”:

     His mimicry of gay speech and facial expressions is analagous to an Amos 'n' Andy routine, in which white men buffooned their way through incredibly demeaning impersonations of black men.