Definition
nounA 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.
nounA person who acts in a silly fashion.
Sentence Examples
When the little boy saw the clown, the cat got his tongue.
The clown fell down on purpose.
The clown at the circus pleased my children.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Over there in Norway, the churches all burn down / Let's go dress in goth clothes and get painted like a clown"
— 2008, Lich King, “Black Metal Sucks”, in Toxic Zombie Onslaught:
""The dealers snatched at the state of intellectual exhaustion and scepticism of all values that followed the first world war to abolish values and substitute for them an arbitrary mumbo-jumbo of occultism and pseudo-Freudianism, which they tagged on to the works of studio clowns like Picasso and Modigliani and the like.""
— 1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 81:
"Doc Bruce Banner, belted by gamma rays,
Turns into the Hulk – Ain’t he unglamour-rays! [unglamorous]
Wreckin’ the town with the power of a bull,
Ain’t no monster, clown. Who is as lovable
As ever-lovin’ Hulk? - Hulk! Hulk!"
— 1966, “The Incredible Hulk (theme song)”, Jacques Urbont (lyrics) (The Marvel Super Heroes (television series)):
"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."
— 2013, Kim Stanley Robinson, The Gold Coast: Three Californias (Wild Shore Triptych; 2), Tom Doherty Associates, →ISBN, page 122:
"'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."
— 2017, Arron Crascall, See Ya Later: The World According to Arron Crascall: