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Clownish vs Clownishly - What's the difference?

clownish | clownishly |

As an adjective clownish

is pertaining to peasants; rustic.

As an adverb clownishly is

in a clownish, undignified, or foolish manner; absurdly, ridiculously.

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.

    • clownishly

    English

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • In a clownish, undignified, or foolish manner; absurdly, ridiculously.
  • * 1916 , James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ,
    • The swift December dusk had come tumbling clownishly after its dull day