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 < French < Italianbuffone, equivalent to buff- (expressive base; compare buffa puff of breath, buffare to puff, puff up one's checks) + -one agent suffix ≪ Latin-ō, accusative -ōnem
Related forms
buffoonery
[buh-foo-nuh-ree] /bəˈfu nə ri/ (Show IPA), noun
buffoonish, adjective
Synonyms
1. jester, clown, fool. 2. boor.
Examples from the web for buffoon
Expect more than oversize shoes and squirting flowers at this year's three-week celebration of all things buffoon.
Anyway, childish heckling says more about the buffoon than the speaker.
When another news crew showed up, the big buffoon did it all over again.
Both buffoon and mime, he trips his way through two silent signature pieces.
It's surely a sign of intellectual cowardice to imagine a buffoon as the face of an opposing ideology.
If the racist buffoon wastes his money on hateful ads, the people will all know what he stands for.
To anyone else this balderdash merely confirms him as a buffoon.
In popular culture, he has often been portrayed as something of a buffoon.
At best, it's a quick way to be branded a fashion buffoon by the style elite.
They get rid of a buffoon and it doesn't cost them a dime.
British Dictionary definitions for buffoon
buffoon
/bəˈfuːn/
noun
1.
a person who amuses others by ridiculous or odd behaviour, jokes, etc
2.
a foolish person
Derived Forms
buffoonery, noun
Word Origin
C16: from French bouffon, from Italian buffone, from Medieval Latin būfō, from Latin: toad
Word Origin and History for buffoon
n.
1540s, "type of pantomime dance;" 1580s, "clown," from Middle French bouffon (16c.), from Italian buffone "jester," from buffa "joke, jest, pleasantry," from buffare "to puff out the cheeks," a comic gesture, of echoic origin. Also cf. -oon.