Pantaloone

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A foolish, miserly old Venetian merchant who is a stock comic figure in Italian commedia dell'arte theatre
2. The gullible, lovesick elderly father type in Italian commedia dell'arte, often mocked for his stinginess and vanity
3. A stock buffoon of Italian commedia dell'arte, usually portrayed as a doddering old Venetian who is easily duped

Etymology: The character began in Venice. Commedia dell'arte troupes in Renaissance Italy staged a stock figure, an old merchant, who took his name from Saint Pantaleon, the city's patron saint. Other Italians nicknamed Venetians "Pantaloni," and the troupe's foolish old man was called "Pantalone" after them. The costume gave the name its second life. Pantalone wore long, close-fitting trousers under a short gown, and those legs eventually lent their name to the garment itself, the "pantaloons" of English. English audiences knew the old man first from the stage. In Shakespeare's As You Like It, Jaques describes "the lean and slippered pantaloon," a feeble, ageing figure.