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Buffoon vs Buffoonery - What's the difference?

buffoon | buffoonery |

As nouns the difference between buffoon and buffoonery

is that buffoon is one who acts in a silly or ridiculous fashion; a clown or fool while buffoonery is foolishness, silliness; the behaviour expected of a buffoon.

As a verb buffoon

is to behave like a.

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.}}

    buffoonery

    English

    Noun

    (buffooneries)
  • foolishness, silliness; the behaviour expected of a buffoon.
  • * 1693 : William Congreve, The Old Bachelor
  • Araminta, come, I'll talk seriously to you now; could you but see with my eyes the buffoonery of one scene of address, a lover, set out with all his equipage and appurtenances; ...
  • * 1814 : Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
  • One could not expect anybody to take such a part. Nothing but buffoonery from beginning to end.
  • * before 1891 : P.T. Barnum, quoted in The Life of Phineas T. Barnum [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1576]
  • The Temperance Reform was too serious a matter for trifling jokes and buffooneries .