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comedian

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Comedian and comedían

English

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Etymology

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From Latin cōmoedia +‎ -an, perhaps modelled on Middle French comédien.[1] By surface analysis, comedy +‎ -an.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

comedian (plural comedians) (feminine: comedienne)

  1. An entertainer who performs in a humorous manner, especially by telling jokes.
    Synonyms: comic, laughsmith
    • 2024 August 29, Gina Cherelus, “The Irresistible Urge to Change Your Location on a Dating App”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 7 October 2024:
      According to Jared Freid, a 39-year-old comedian and co-host of the dating podcast "U Up?," this is known as hoodfishing, a coinage — though not his own — referring to people claiming to be from the city they are dating in but really are living somewhere else entirely.
  2. (by extension) Any person who is humorous or amusing, either characteristically or on a particular occasion.
    Synonyms: card, cutup, gagster, joker, wag, wit
  3. (dated) A person who performs in theatrical plays.
    Synonyms: actor, player, thespian
    Coordinate term: tragedian
    • c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
      […] the quick comedians
      Extemporally will stage us, and present
      Our Alexandrian revels;
    • 1714, Susanna Centlivre, The Wonder, London: E. Curll and A. Bettesworth, Preface,[2]
      I Don’t pretend to write a Preface, either to point out the Beauties, or to excuse the Errors, a judicious Reader may possibly discover in the following Scenes, but to give those excellent Comedians their Due, to whom, in some Measure the best Dramatick Writers are oblig’d.
    • 1755, George Colman, The Connaisseur‎[3], volume 1, London: R. Baldwin, page 1:
      When a Comedian, celebrated for his excellence in the part of Shylock, first undertook that character, he made daily visits to the center of business, the ’Change, and the adjacent Coffee-houses; that by a frequent intercourse and conversation with “the unforeskinn’d race,” he might habituate himself to their air and deportment.
    • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 51, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
      Becky, the nightingale, took the flowers which he threw to her and pressed them to her heart with the air of a consummate comedian.
  4. (obsolete) A writer of comedies.
    Coordinate term: tragedian
    • a. 1587 (date written), Phillip Sidney [i.e., Philip Sidney], An Apologie for Poetrie. […], London: […] [James Roberts] for Henry Olney, […], published 1595, →OCLC; republished as Edward Arber, editor, An Apologie for Poetrie (English Reprints), London: [Alexander Murray & Son], 1 April 1868, →OCLC, pages 44–45:
      This doth the Comedy handle ſo in our priuate and domeſtical matters, as with hearing it, we get as it were an experience, what is to be looked for of a nigardly Demea: of a crafty Danus: of a flattering Gnato: of a vaine glorious Thraſo: and not onely to know what effects are to be expected, but to know who be ſuch, by the ſignifying badge giuen them by the Comedian.
    • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 5:
      Neither is it recorded that the writings of those old Comedians were supprest, though the acting of them were forbid;
    • 1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, London: Whitestone et al., Volume 3, Lecture 47, p. 377,[4]
      […] the Dramatic Author, in whom the French glory most, and whom they justly place at the head of all their Comedians, is, the famous Moliere.

Synonyms

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Hypernyms

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  • (male comedian): comedian (male and female)

Hyponyms

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  • (comedian, male and female): comedian (male), comedienne (female)

Derived terms

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Descendants

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “comedian, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Anagrams

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Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French comédien. By surface analysis, comedie +‎ -an.

Noun

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comedian m (plural comedieni, feminine equivalent comediană)

  1. comedian

Declension

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singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative comedian comedianul comedieni comedienii
genitive-dative comedian comedianului comedieni comedienilor
vocative comedianule comedienilor
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