comedian
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From comedy + -ian. From Middle French comédien, from comédie (“comedy”).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (US) IPA(key): /kəˈmiːdi.ən/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Noun
[edit]
comedian (plural comedians) (feminine: comedienne)
- An entertainer who performs in a humorous manner, especially by telling jokes.
- Synonyms: comic, laughsmith
- (by extension) Any person who is humorous or amusing, either characteristically or on a particular occasion.
- (dated) A person who performs in theatrical plays.
- c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
- […] the quick comedians
Extemporally will stage us, and present
Our Alexandrian revels;
- 1714, Susanna Centlivre, The Wonder, London: E. Curll and A. Bettesworth, Preface,[1]
- 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[2], volume 1, London: R. Baldwin, page 1:
- 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.
- 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 51, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
- Becky, the nightingale, took the flowers which he threw to her and pressed them to her heart with the air of a consummate comedian.
- (obsolete) A writer of comedies.
- Coordinate term: tragedian
- 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 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,[3]
- […] 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
[edit]Hypernyms
[edit]- (male comedian): comedian (male and female)
Hyponyms
[edit]- (comedian, male and female): comedian (male), comedienne (female)
Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]Translations
[edit]entertainer
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Anagrams
[edit]Romanian
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from French comédien. By surface analysis, comedie + -an.
Noun
[edit]comedian m (plural comedieni)
Declension
[edit]| singular | plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | ||
| nominative-accusative | comedian | comedianul | comedieni | comedienii | |
| genitive-dative | comedian | comedianului | comedieni | comedienilor | |
| vocative | comedianule | comedienilor | |||
Categories:
- English terms suffixed with -ian
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English 4-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English dated terms
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Occupations
- en:Comedy
- en:People
- Romanian terms borrowed from French
- Romanian terms derived from French
- Romanian terms suffixed with -an
- Romanian lemmas
- Romanian nouns
- Romanian countable nouns
- Romanian masculine nouns