word of the day :: buffoonery

buffoon:

[buh-foon]

–noun

1. a person who amuses others by tricks, jokes, odd gestures and postures, etc.
2. a person given to coarse or undignified joking.

  

Origin:

1540-50; earlier buffon < F < It buffone,  equiv. to buff- (expressive base; cf. buffa  puff of breath, buffare  to puff, puff up one's checks) + -one  agent suffix ≪ L -ō,  acc. -ōnem

 

-Related Forms 

buff·foon·er·y [buh-foo-nuh-ree], noun

 

"There are ancient and modern poems which breathe, in their entirety and in every detail, the divine breath of irony. In such poems there lives a real transcendental buffoonery. "

:: Friedrich von Schlegel ::

* Definition from www.dictionary.com