Where does “buffoon” come from?
Buffoon comes from Middle French bouffon, from Italian buffone, a noun formed with the Italian augmentative suffix -one from the verb buffare, itself derived from French pouf and Latin -us.
buffoon (English): One who acts in a silly or ridiculous fashion; a...
Definitions
- One who acts in a silly or ridiculous fashion; a...
Ancestry of “buffoon”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle French | bouffon | Alternative form of boufon |
| 2 | Italian | buffone | clown, buffoon, joker, fool; plural of buffona |
| 3 | Italian | -one | Alterative suffix used to form augmentatives;... |
| 4 | Latin | -ō | suffixed to nouns or adjectives. Originally a-stem nouns. Later extended to nouns with other stems. Forms regular first-conjugation verbs |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | -ō | Derives nouns from roots |