harlequin

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“
This Lord keeps Mrs. Horton the player; we keep Miss Norsa the player: Rich the harlequin is an intimate of all; and to cement the harlequinity, somebody's brother (excuse me if I am not perfect in such genealogy) is to marry the Jewess's sister.

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Definitions (24)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A conventional buffoon of the commedia dell'arte, traditionally presented in a mask and parti-colored tights.
  2. noun A clown; a buffoon.
  3. adjective Having a pattern of brightly colored diamond shapes.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (16)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples

  • She looked like a harlequin, he thought; white cheek planes slashed by leaf shadows, framed by the dark of her hair, her eyes black triangles set above a dash of vivid mouth. —  Drums of Autumn
  • This Lord keeps Mrs. Horton the player; we keep Miss Norsa the player: Rich the harlequin is an intimate of all; and to cement the harlequinity, somebody's brother (excuse me if I am not perfect in such genealogy) is to marry the Jewess's sister. —  The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 1
  • After some vain researches the French consul, M. de St. Sauveur, told me that the harlequin was a young lady of rank, and that the columbine was a handsome young man If you like," he added, "I will introduce you to the harlequin's family, and I am sure you will appreciate her charms when you see her as a girl As they persisted in their jokes I was able, without wounding decency overmuch, to convince myself that the consul was right on the question of sex; and when the ball was over I said I should be obliged by his introducing me as he had promised. —  The Complete Memoirs of Jacques Casanova
  • After some vain researches the French consul, M. de St. Sauveur, told me that the harlequin was a young lady of rank, and that the columbine was a handsome young man. —  The Complete Memoirs of Jacques Casanova
  • See, a harlequin is a clown. —  WordPress.com News
 

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Harlequin has been looked up 324 times, favorited 4 times, listed 61 times, and commented on 0 times.

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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Obsolete French, from Old French Herlequin, Hellequin, a demon, perhaps from Middle English *Herleking, from Old English Herla cyning, King Herla, a mythical figure identified with Woden.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Formerly also harlekin, harlaken; = Dutch harlekijn = G. Danish Swedish harlekin, from Old French harlequin (15th century), French arlequin (later prob. Spanish arlequin, arnequin = Portuguese arlequim = Italian arlecchino), a harlequin; prob. a later form (associated with a popular etymology which connected the word with Charles Quint, Charles V.) of Old French herlequin, herlekin, helequin, halequin, hellekin, hierlekin, hellequin (13th century), a demon, Satan, earlier and usually occurring in the phrase la mesnie hellekin (la maisnie hierlekin, etc., Middle Latin harlequini familia, Middle English Hurlewaynes kynne, or Hurlewaynes meyne), in popular superstition a troop of yelling demons that haunted lonely places or appeared in tempests, the Old French mesnie (maisnie, maisnee, meisnee, Middle English mainee, meinee, meyne, etc., English obsolete many), a family, company, troop, in this phrase being apparently orig. an explanatory addition, giving hellekin the appearance of a quasi-genitive of a personal name, as reflected in the Middle Latin and Middle English expressions; hellekin, hellequin, etc., itself meaning orig. ‘troop of hell’ (literally ‘hell's kin,’ from Old Low German *helle kin = Anglo-Saxon helle cynn (cinn): see hell and kin). Hell and its devils were very prominent features of the medieval stage. The demon Alichino in Dante (Inf., xxi. 118) prob. owes his name to the same Old Low German source.
  2. from harlequin, n.
 

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/ˈhɑrlɛkɪn/
by American Heritage

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