different between offbeat vs zany

English

Alternative forms

• off-beat, off beat

Etymology

From off- +? beat; not following the beat (e.g., of a drum that sounds out cadence)

Pronunciation

• (noun) IPA^(key): /??fbi?t/
• (adjective) IPA^(key): /?f?bi?t/
• Rhymes: -i?t

Noun

offbeat (plural offbeats)

1. (music) The beats not normally accented in a measure.

2. (slang) An unconventional person, someone who does not follow the beat, who chooses not to conform.

   Synonyms: oddball, free spirit, heteroclite, individualist, nonconformist; see also Thesaurus:maverick, Thesaurus:strange person

Translations

Adjective

offbeat (comparative more offbeat, superlative most offbeat)

1. Unusual; unconventional; not ordinary.

Synonyms

• odd, peculiar, weird; see also Thesaurus:strange

Translations

Anagrams

• beat off

English

Etymology

From Middle French zani, zanni, from Italian zanni (“a kind of masked clown character”), from Zanni, a dialectal form of Giovanni.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ze?ni/
• Rhymes: -e?ni
• Hyphenation: za?ny

Adjective

zany (comparative zanier, superlative zaniest)

1. Unusual and awkward in a funny, comical manner; outlandish; clownish.
2. Ludicrously or incongruously comical.

Synonyms

• wacky

Derived terms

• zaniness

Translations

Noun

zany (plural zanies)

1. (obsolete) A fool or clown, especially one whose business on the stage is to imitate foolishly the actions of the principal clown.
   • a. 1631, John Donne, Epistle to Mr. I. W.

     Then write that I may follow, and so be / Thy echo, thy debtor, thy foil, thy zany.

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     So there he caught me lying like a zany on the ground. You may guess I stood at attention soon enough, but told him I was looking at the founds to see if they wanted underpinning from the floods.

Verb

zany (third-person singular simple present zanies, present participle zanying, simple past and past participle zanied)

1. (obsolete) To mimic foolishly.

References

• John Dover Wilson, comp. (1911) Life in Shakespeare's England: A Book of Elizabethan Prose, Cambridge: At the University Press, OCLC 2938084.

Anagrams

• Zayn, zayn