balatron
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Latin balatrō (“jester, buffoon”).
Noun
[edit]balatron (plural balatrons)
- A buffoon; one who speaks a lot of nonsense and is characterized by self-indulgence.
- 1927, The Dalhousie Review - Volume 7, page 65:
- If we are "students of the Balatronic dialect" — a dialect so called from the "Balatrons" or professional buffons who invented most of it — we shall perhaps refer to its users as: — "Blunderkins, having their heads stuffed with nought but balderdash.
- 1981, Alexander Theroux, Darconville's cat, page 32:
- His fat body shook like a balatron, as if his soul, biting for anger at a mouth inadequately circumferential, desired in vain to fret a passage through it.
- 1990, Christopher Maslanka, The Guardian Book of Puzzles, →ISBN, page 52:
- But he did not want to look a complete balatron in front of the Rabbi.
- 2015, Peter N. Milligan, Bulls Before Breakfast, →ISBN, page 87:
- Anyone who discounts the peril is a self-important, arrogant balatron.