different between singer vs comedian

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English synger, syngere, singere, singare, equivalent to sing +? -er. Cognate with Scots singar, Saterland Frisian Sjunger, West Frisian sjonger, German Low German Singer. Compare also Old English sangere, Dutch zanger, German Low German Sänger, German Sänger (“singer”), Danish sanger, Swedish sångare, Icelandic söngvari.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s???/
• (General American) enPR: s?ng??r IPA^(key): /?s???/
• Rhymes: -???(?)

Noun

singer (plural singers)

1. A person who sings, often professionally.
2. (square dance) dance figure with a fixed structure, sung by a caller, or a piece of music with that structure.

Synonyms

• (person who sings): cantor, chanter

Hyponyms

• (person who sings):
  • (female): cantrix (archaic), chanteuse, chantress, singeress (obsolete, rare), songstress
  • (male): songster

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ???? (shing?)

Translations

Etymology 2

From singe +? -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?nd???(?)/
• Rhymes: -?nd??(?)

Noun

singer (plural singers)

1. A person who, or device which, singes.
2. A machine for singeing cloth.

Translations

Anagrams

• Greins, Negris, nigres, re-nigs, re-sign, reigns, renigs, resign, resing, ringes, signer

French

Etymology

In at least the ape sense, from singe (“monkey”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??.?e/

Verb

singer

1. to ape
2. to sprinkle with flour

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb, but the stem is written singe- before endings that begin with -a- or -o- (to indicate that the -g- is a “soft” /?/ and not a “hard” /?/). This spelling-change occurs in all verbs in -ger, such as neiger and manger.

Further reading

• “singer” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• signer

English

Etymology

comedy +? -ian. From Middle French comédien, from comédie (“comedy”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /k??mi?di.?n/

Noun

comedian (plural comedians) (feminine: comedienne)

1. An entertainer who performs in a humorous manner, especially by telling jokes.

   Synonym: comic

2. (by extension) Any person who is humorous or amusing, either characteristically or on a particular occasion.

   Synonyms: card, cutup, gagster, joker, wag, wit

3. (dated) A person who performs in theatrical plays.

   Synonyms: actor, player, thespian

   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act V, Scene 2,^[1]

     […] the quick comedians

     Extemporally will stage us, and present

     Our Alexandrian revels;

   • 1714, Susanna Centlivre, The Wonder, London: E. Curll and A. Bettesworth, Preface,^[2]

     I Don’t pretend to write a Preface, either to point out the Beauties, or to excuse the Errors, a judicious Reader may possibly discover in the following Scenes, but to give those excellent Comedians their Due, to whom, in some Measure the best Dramatick Writers are oblig’d.

   • 1755, George Colman, The Connaisseur, London: R. Baldwin, Volume 1, p. 1,^[3]

     When a Comedian, celebrated for his excellence in the part of Shylock, first undertook that character, he made daily visits to the center of business, the ’Change, and the adjacent Coffee-houses; that by a frequent intercourse and conversation with “the unforeskinn’d race,” he might habituate himself to their air and deportment.

   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 51,^[4]

     Becky, the nightingale, took the flowers which he threw to her and pressed them to her heart with the air of a consummate comedian.

4. (obsolete) A writer of comedies.
   • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica, London, p. 5,^[5]

     Neither is it recorded that the writings of those old Comedians were supprest, though the acting of them were forbid;

   • 1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, London: Whitestone et al., Volume 3, Lecture 47, p. 377,^[6]

     […] the Dramatic Author, in whom the French glory most, and whom they justly place at the head of all their Comedians, is, the famous Moliere.

Synonyms

• funnyman/funnywoman

Hypernyms

• (male comedian): comedian (male and female)

Hyponyms

• (comedian, male and female): comedian (male), comedienne (female)

See also

• tragedian

Translations

Anagrams

• daemonic, demoniac, dæmonic, midocean

Romanian

Etymology

From French comédien.

Noun

comedian m (plural comedieni)

1. comedian

Declension