What is the etymology of the word for "clown" in the romance languages? (payaso, pagliaccio, palhaço)?
Specifically, I am wondering how the word found its way into Turkish (where it's "palyaço"). I know a lot of French words are also found in Turkish, but strangely French seems like the one romance language where the word for "clown" does not look similar. And I can find nothing in an online latin dictionary that resembles this word, either, which just puzzles me more.
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One of the traditional characters of the Italian comedy was a sort of clown who wore weird clothing made out of the same coarse fabric used to cover straw mattresses. So, it was called 'pagliaccio', a word formed from the Italian 'paglia', staw, from the latin 'paleæ, palearum.'
Profuy
Paillasse in French (straw mattress) is a character in 17th 18th s.
The Spanish, ltalian and Portuguese words for clown come from the name of this character.
ln French you say clown just borrowed from English.
Clown Etymology