different between yokel vs clown

English

Etymology

1812, possibly from dialectal German Jokel, diminutive of Jakob; alternatively, from dialectal English yokel (“woodpecker”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?j??.k?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?jo?.k?l/
• Rhymes: -??k?l

Noun

yokel (plural yokels)

1. (derogatory) A person from or living in the countryside, viewed as being unsophisticated and/or naive.

   Synonyms: boor, bumpkin, country bumpkin, joskin, hillbilly, hick, peasant, provincial, rube, rustic, yahoo

   • 1838, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, London: Richard Bentley, Volume 2, Chapter 30, p. 81,^[1]

     “ […] my opinion at once is […] that this [robbery] wasn’t done by a yokel?eh, Duff?”

     “Certainly not,” replied Duff.

     “And, translating the word yokel, for the benefit of the ladies, I apprehend your meaning to be that this attempt was not made by a countryman?” said Mr. Losberne with a smile.

   • 1895, Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage, New York: Appleton, Chapter 8, p. 88,^[2]

     He eyed the story-teller with unspeakable wonder. His mouth was agape in yokel fashion.

   • 1985, Peter De Vries, The Prick of Noon, Penguin, Chapter 6, p. 119,^[3]

     I went to New York and bought myself a secondhand stretch limousine twenty-eight feet long, calculated to reduce the most blasé country-club sophisticates to bug-eyed yokels.

   • 1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, London: Phoenix, 1994, Chapter 8.6, p. 560,^[4]

     ‘You may think that because you live in Brahmpur you have seen the world?or more of the world than we poor yokels see. But some of us yokels have also seen the world?and not just the world of Brahmpur, but of Bombay. […] ’

Derived terms

• yokelry

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Kolye, Lokey, koley, kyloe

English

Alternative forms

• clowne, cloyne (obsolete)

Etymology

From earlier clowne, cloyne (“man of rustic or coarse manners, boor, peasant”), likely of North Germanic origin, akin to Icelandic klunni (“clumsy fellow, klutz”). Compare also North Frisian klönne (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Dutch kluns (“clumsy fellow”). Unlikely from Latin col?nus (“colonist, farmer”), although learned awareness of this term may have influenced semantic development.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kloun, IPA^(key): /kla?n/
• Rhymes: -a?n

Noun

clown (plural clowns)

1. A slapstick performance artist often associated with a circus and usually characterized by bright, oversized clothing, a red nose, face paint, and a brightly colored wig.
   • 2008, Lich King, "Black Metal Sucks", Toxic Zombie Onslaught.

2. A person who acts in a silly fashion.
3. A stupid person.
4. (obsolete) A man of coarse nature and manners; an awkward fellow; an illbred person; a boor.
   • 1700, Timothy Nourse, Campania Foelix, pp. 15–16

     […] three things ought always to be kept under: a mastiff dog, a stone horse and a clown; and really I think a snarling, cross-grained clown to be the most unlucky beast of three.

5. (obsolete) One who works upon the soil; a rustic; a churl; a yokel.

   • The clown, the child of nature, without guile.

   • August 25, 1759, Samuel Johnson, The Idler No. 71

     He […] began to descend to familiar questions, endeavouring to accommodate his discourse to the grossness of rustic understandings. The clowns soon found that he did not know wheat from rye, and began to despise him; one of the boys, by pretending to show him a bird's nest, decoyed him into a ditch; […]

Synonyms

• (person who acts in a silly fashion): buffoon, fool

Derived terms

• clown beetle
• class clown
• clown doctor
• clownfish
• clownish

Translations

Verb

clown (third-person singular simple present clowns, present participle clowning, simple past and past participle clowned)

1. (intransitive) To act in a silly or playful fashion.
2. (transitive, African-American Vernacular) To ridicule.
   • 2002, Vibe (volume 10, number 11, page 62)

     The show Dismissed was one of my favorites, because I like to see people get clowned.

   • 2017, Darrell Smith, Miracle Baby

     All my comrades were laughing and clowning me, but shit, that didn't stop me from talking more shit.

Derived terms

• clown about (British)
• clown around

See also

• coulrophobia
• jester
• jackpudding

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English clown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl?u?n/
• Hyphenation: clown
• Rhymes: -?u?n

Noun

clown m (plural clowns, diminutive clowntje n)

1. clown (entertainer)

Derived terms

• circusclown
• clownsneus
• clownvis

See also

• august
• harlekijn
• paljas
• pierrot
• nar
• witte clown
• zot

French

Etymology

From English clown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klun/
• Homophone: clowns

Noun

clown m (plural clowns)

1. clown (performer)
2. clown (person who acts in a comic way)

Synonyms

• (performer): (Louisiana) macaque

Further reading

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

Italian

Noun

clown m (invariable)

1. clown (artist)

   Synonym: pagliaccio

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klawn/

Noun

clown m pers

1. (comedy) Alternative spelling of klaun.

Declension

Derived terms

• (noun) clownada
• (adjective) clownowski

Further reading

• clown in Wielki s?ownik j?zyka polskiego, Instytut J?zyka Polskiego PAN
• clown in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Spanish

Alternative forms

• clon

Etymology

From English clown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?klon/, [?klõn]

Noun

clown m (plural clownes)

1. clown (circus performance artist)

   Synonym: payaso

Swedish

Etymology

From English clown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kla?n/

Noun

clown c

1. clown

Declension

Synonyms

• pajas

Derived terms

• clownaktig
• clownfisk

References

• clown in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl?u?n/

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English clown.

Noun

clown m (plural clowniaid)

1. clown

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

• closwn (colloquial, first-person singular conditional)

Verb

clown

1. first-person plural present/future of cloi
2. first-person singular imperfect/conditional of cloi
3. (literary) first-person plural imperative of cloi

Mutation