buffoon

From Middle French bouffon, from Italian buffone (“jester”), from buffare (“to puff out the cheeks”), of onomatopoeic origin. Compare Middle High German buffen ("to puff"; > German büffen), Old English pyffan (“to breathe out, blow with the mouth”). More at English puff.

• IPA^(key): /bəˈfuːn/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -uːn

buffoon (plural buffoons)

1. One who acts in a silly or ridiculous fashion; a clown or fool.
   • 1810, W. Melmoth, transl., Letters of Pliny:

     To divert the audience with buffoon postures and antic dances.

2. (derogatory) An unintentionally ridiculous person.

• In the United States the term most commonly refers to inappropriate, clownish figures on the public stage; here the behavior of a variety of public figures have caused them to be referred to as buffoons by their political opponents.
• In the United Kingdom the term is used more broadly, to refer to such people who are retained in popular regard but who nevertheless engender amusement with their pronouncements and acts.

• buffoonery
• buffonize

buffoon (third-person singular simple present buffoons, present participle buffooning, simple past and past participle buffooned)

1. To behave like a buffoon
   • 1988 January 22, Henry Sheehan, “Little Boy Blue”, in Chicago Reader‎:

     His mimicry of gay speech and facial expressions is analagous to an Amos 'n' Andy routine, in which white men buffooned their way through incredibly demeaning impersonations of black men.