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Buffoon vs Baboon - What's the difference?

buffoon | baboon |

As nouns the difference between buffoon and baboon

is that buffoon is one who acts in a silly or ridiculous fashion; a clown or fool while baboon is an Old World monkey of the genus Papio, having dog-like muzzles and large canine teeth, cheek pouches, a short tail, and naked callosities on the buttocks.

As a verb buffoon

is to behave like a buffoon.

buffoon

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • One who acts in a silly or ridiculous fashion; a clown or fool.
  • * Melmoth
  • To divert the audience with buffoon postures and antic dances.
  • (pejorative) An unintentionally ridiculous person.
  • Usage notes

    * In the United States the term is used most commonly to describe inappropriate, clownish figures on the public stage; here the behavior of a variety of public figures have caused them to be described as buffoons by their political opponents. * In the UK the term is used more broadly, to describe such people who are held in popular regard but who nevertheless engender amusement with their pronouncements and acts.

    Derived terms

    * buffoonery

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To behave like a
  • * {{quote-news, 1988, January 22, Henry Sheehan, Little Boy Blue, Chicago Reader citation
  • , passage=His mimicry of gay speech and facial expressions is analagous to an Amos 'n' Andy routine, in which white men buffooned their way through incredibly demeaning impersonations of black men.}}

    baboon

    English

    (wikipedia baboon)

    Alternative forms

    * babian, babion * ** babewyne ** baboyne * ** babewen ** babewin ** babewyn ** babwen ** babwyn ** baubyn * ** baboon ** baboone ** babound ** baboune ** baboyn ** babwyne * ** baboon ** baboone ** baboune * ** baboon

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An Old World monkey of the genus Papio , having dog-like muzzles and large canine teeth, cheek pouches, a short tail, and naked callosities on the buttocks.
  • * 1971 : Philip José Farmer, Down in the Black Gang: and others; a story collection , page 79 (Nelson Doubleday)
  • Mix swallowed the comment he wanted to make, that the council hall stank like a congress of baboons . But he was in no position to insult his host, nor should he. The man was only expressing the attitude of his time.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
  • , author=John T. Jost , title=Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)? , volume=100, issue=2, page=162 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=He draws eclectically on studies of baboons , descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record.}}

    Usage notes

    The collective noun for baboons is troop .

    Derived terms

    * baboonery * baboonish

    See also

    * chacma * drill * mandrill *

    References