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Clownfish vs Clownish - What's the difference?

clownfish | clownish |

As a noun clownfish

is any of colorful fish of the genera Amphiprion and Premnas in the subfamily Amphiprioninae, native to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, notable for their mutual relationship with sea anemones.

As an adjective clownish is

pertaining to peasants; rustic.

clownfish

English

Noun

(en-noun)
  • Any of colorful fish of the genera Amphiprion'' and ''Premnas in the subfamily Amphiprioninae, native to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, notable for their mutual relationship with sea anemones.

    • Synonyms

    * anemonefish

    External links

    * (Amphiprioninae) * (Amphiprioninae) *

    clownish

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Pertaining to peasants; rustic.
  • Uncultured, boorish; rough, coarse.
  • *1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.1:
  • *:Large were his limbes, and terrible his looke, / And in his clownish hand a sharp bore speare he shooke.
  • *1815 , (Jane Austen), Emma , :
  • *:"He is very plain, undoubtedly--remarkably plain:--but that is nothing compared with his entire want of gentility. I had no right to expect much, and I did not expect much; but I had no idea that he could be so very clownish , so totally without air. I had imagined him, I confess, a degree or two nearer gentility."
  • Like a circus clown; comical, ridiculous.
  • * 2014 , Jacob Steinberg, " Wigan shock Manchester City in FA Cup again to reach semi-finals", The Guardian , 9 March 2014:
    • Once again, City's defending was clownish . James McArthur drove into the area on the left and pulled a low cross towards the far post, where the horribly timid Gaël Clichy allowed Perch to bundle the ball past Costel Pantilimon.
  • *2005 , (Laura Barton), The Guardian , 14 May 2005:
  • *:Indeed, when in close quarters to Rooney, it must prove almost irresistible to stick a plastic moustache and silly clownish shoes on the potato-headed fool.