buffoon

[ buh-foon ]

/ bəˈfun /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR buffoon ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a person who amuses others by tricks, jokes, odd gestures and postures, etc.

a person given to coarse or undignified joking.

Nearby words

buffett,
bufflehead,
buffo,
buffon,
buffon, georges louis leclerc, comte de,
buffoonery,
buffs,
buffy,
buffy coat,
bufo

Origin of buffoon

1540–50; earlier buffon < French < Italian buffone, equivalent to buff- (expressive base; compare buffa puff of breath, buffare to puff, puff up one's checks) + -one agent suffix ≪ Latin -ō, accusative -ōnem

SYNONYMS FOR buffoon

1 jester, clown, fool.

2 boor.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR buffoon ON THESAURUS.COM

Related formsbuf·foon·er·y

[buh-foo-nuh-ree] /bəˈfu nə ri/, nounbuf·foon·ish, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for buffoonery

This CNN clip taken on a flooded street on Long Island serves up a buffet of buffoonery.
Hurricane Sandy’s Biggest Idiots: Jet Skiing on the Hudson & More (VIDEO)|Kevin Fallon|October 30, 2012|DAILY BEAST
The style of preaching before the Reformation had been often little else than buffoonery, and seldom respectable.
Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, Vol. 2|Henry Hallam
The spirit of buffoonery need not exclude charity; but that's rare.
Baudelaire: His Prose and Poetry|Charles Baudelaire
This farce, which was played every year in the temple of Jupiter, is said to have been called "buffoonery."
A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 2 (of 10)|Franois-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire)

It made him servile, disposed to buffoonery, with no sense of the fitness of things, and devoid of all foresight and prudence.
A Family of Noblemen|Mikhal Saltykov
Then followed the buffoonery; and this was at least genuine rough and tumble if there was little wit in it.
The English in the West Indies|James Anthony Froude

British Dictionary definitions for buffoonery

buffoon

/ (bəˈfuːn) /

noun

a person who amuses others by ridiculous or odd behaviour, jokes, etc

a foolish person

Derived Formsbuffoonery, noun

Word Origin for buffoon

C16: from French bouffon, from Italian buffone, from Medieval Latin būfō, from Latin: toad

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for buffoonery (1 of 2)

buffoonery

1620s; see buffoon + -ery.

Word Origin and History for buffoonery (1 of 2)

buffoon

1540s, "type of pantomime dance;" 1580s, "clown," from Middle French bouffon (16c.), from Italian buffone "jester," from buffa "joke, jest, pleasantry," from buffare "to puff out the cheeks," a comic gesture, of echoic origin. Also cf. -oon.