Hanswurst

English

Borrowed from German Hanswurst.

Hanswurst (plural Hanswursts)

(theater) A clownlike character popular in German and Austrian plays during the 18th century.
- 2015, Dorothy Chansky, Ann Folino White, editors, Food and Theatre on the World Stage, Routledge, →ISBN, page 87:
  Hanswurst, on the other hand, gained a specific profile in the early eighteenth century. As he is largely known today, in his brightly colored peasant clothing consisting of the trademark baggy yellow trousers, red suspenders, red jacket, […]

Hans +‎ Wurst.

Hanswurst m (strong, genitive Hanswurstes, plural Hanswurste or Hanswürste)

(theater) Hanswurst, zany (clown-like character in German and Austrian plays)
- 1796, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, chapter 4, in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre [Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship]‎^[1], volume 1; republished as Thomas Carlyle, transl., 1824:
  Nunmehr konnte mich der Hanswurst, sosehr er mit seinen Absätzen klapperte, nicht unterhalten.
  Henceforth, Jack-pudding, however he might clatter with his heels, could not any longer entertain me.
(by extension, derogatory) fool
- 1908, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Ecce Homo‎^[2]:
  Meine Erfahrungen selbst mit Solchen, an denen Jedermann schlechte Erfahrungen macht, sprechen ohne Ausnahme zu deren Gunsten; ich zähme jeden Bär, ich mache die Hanswürste noch sittsam.
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension of Hanswurst [masculine, strong]

¹Now rare, see notes.