Clowned

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /klaʊnd/

Definitions

1. To have engaged in playful mockery or ridicule of someone while also performing in an exaggerated manner for entertainment
2. To have participated in humorous behavior characterized by silliness, aiming to amuse others and bring levity
3. To have acted in the role of a clown, entertaining by dressing and behaving comically ; to have behaved in a silly or ridiculous way to provoke laughter or amusement

Etymology: The verb "clowned" is simply the past tense of "clown," so the story belongs to the noun. That noun first meant a rustic or coarse person, a boor or peasant, rather than a comic performer. Its likely ancestors are words for a clumsy lout, such as Icelandic "klunni" and Swedish "kluns," which trace back to a Middle Low German word for a lump or thick mass. The image is of a person as heavy and shapeless as a clod. The link to the circus figure came later, as the sense of clumsiness and awkward manners shifted toward a fool who amuses through deliberate silliness. Acting as such a figure is what "clowned" now describes. Some have suggested a connection to Latin "colonus," meaning farmer, but this is considered unlikely, though a learned awareness of that word may have shaped how the meaning developed.

Synonyms: joked, foolished, buffooned

Antonyms: seriousness