Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The act or practice of imitation or mimicry.
- noun The condition or habits of a buffoon or a low clown: often used contemptuously.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun State or character of a zany; buffoonery.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun archaic
clownishness ;buffoonery
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
zany + -ism
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Examples
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The caricature of his filth and zanyism proves how fully he both knew and felt the danger in which he stood.
Literary Remains, Volume 1 Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1803
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His atavistic longings are well portrayed in the climax when he virtually feels stranded as he can neither go back to the past (forest, the land of the animals) nor to the present where sophisticated zanyism rule the roost.
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