Harlequin
pronunciation
How to pronounce Harlequin in British English:
UK 
How to pronounce Harlequin in American English:
US
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- Noun:
- a clown or buffoon (after the Harlequin character in the commedia dell'arte)
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- Verb:
- variegate with spots or marks
Word Origin
- harlequin
- harlequin: [16] Harlequin, a brightly-clad character in the Italian commedia dell’arte, has a murky history. He seems to have originated in a mythical figure known in Old French as Herlequin or Hellequin, who was the leader of a ghostly troop of horsemen who rode across the sky at night. And Herlequin could well be a later incarnation of King Herla (in Old English Herla cyning), a legendary personage who has been identified with the chief Anglo-Saxon god Woden.It seems likely that another piece of the jigsaw could be the erlking, the supernatural abductor of children described in a Goethe poem memorably set to music by Schubert; its name is generally traced back to Danish ellerkonge, a variant of elverkonge, literally ‘king of the elves’, which bears a resemblance to Herlequin that is surely too strong to be coincidental.In early modern French Herlequin became Harlequin, the form borrowed by English (present-day French arlequin shows the influence of Italian arlecchino).=> king
- harlequin (n.)
- 1580s, Harlicken, one of the stock characters of Italian commedia del'arte, from Middle French harlequin, from Italian arlecchino, which is possibly from the same source as Old French Herlequin, Hellequin, etc., leader of la maisnie Hellequin, a troop of demons who rode the night air on horses. This is perhaps of Germanic origin; he seems to correspond to Old English Herla cyning "King Herla," mythical character sometimes identified as Woden, and possibly also to German Erlkönig, the "Elf King" of the Goethe poem. Sometimes also associated with Herrequin, 9c. count of Boulogne, who was proverbially wicked. In English pantomime, a mute character who carries a magic wand. From his ludicrous dress comes the English adjective meaning "particolored" (1779).
Example
- 1. The man 's got a real-life harlequin romance in his head .
- 2. I came as a harlequin . She dressed as petunia pig .
- 3. February 2 , 2010 : a harlequin great dane named ' giant george ' is the current guinness world record holder .
- 4. It was a bit sentimental , kind of a harlequin romance .
- 5. Now many are easily available : harlequin has digitised more than 13000 of its books .