Definitions for pierrot
ˌpi əˈroʊ; Fr. pyɛˈroʊ; -ˈroʊz; Fr. -ˈroʊpier·rot

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Pierrotnoun

   a male character in French pantomime; usually dressed in white with a whitened face

WiktionaryRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. Pierrotnoun

   A character from French pantomime; a buffoon in a loose white outfit.

2. Etymology: Pierrot, diminutive of Pierre via diminutive suffix -ot.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Pierrot

   Pierrot ( PEER-oh, US also PEE-ə-roh, PEE-ə-ROH, French: [pjɛʁo] (listen)) is a stock character of pantomime and commedia dell'arte, whose origins are in the late seventeenth-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne. The name is a diminutive of Pierre (Peter), via the suffix -ot. His character in contemporary popular culture — in poetry, fiction, and the visual arts, as well as works for the stage, screen, and concert hall — is that of the sad clown, often pining for love of Columbine, who usually breaks his heart and leaves him for Harlequin. Performing unmasked, with a whitened face, he wears a loose white blouse with large buttons and wide white pantaloons. Sometimes he appears with a frilled collaret and a hat, usually with a close-fitting crown and wide round brim and, more rarely, with a conical shape like a dunce's cap. Pierrot's character developed from being a buffoon to an avatar of the disenfranchised. Many cultural movements found him amenable to their respective causes: Decadents turned him into a disillusioned foe of idealism; Symbolists saw him as a lonely fellow-sufferer; Modernists made him into a silent, alienated observer of the mysteries of the human condition. Much of that mythic quality ("I'm Pierrot," said David Bowie: "I'm Everyman") still adheres to the "sad clown" in the postmodern era.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. pierrot

   A pierrot is a type of character in mime and pantomime, typically portrayed as a sad or pensive clown with white face makeup and usually dressed in loose white clothes. The character originated in late 17th century French pantomime tradition and became popular in Paris during the 19th century.

FreebaseRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. Pierrot

   Pierrot is a stock character of pantomime and Commedia dell'Arte whose origins are in the late seventeenth-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne; the name is a hypocorism of Pierre, via the suffix -ot. His character in postmodern popular culture—in poetry, fiction, the visual arts, as well as works for the stage, screen, and concert hall—is that of the sad clown, pining for love of Columbine, who usually breaks his heart and leaves him for Harlequin. Performing unmasked, with a whitened face, he wears a loose white blouse with large buttons and wide white pantaloons. Sometimes he appears with a frilled collaret and a hat, usually with a close-fitting crown and wide round brim, more rarely with a conical shape like a dunce's cap. But most frequently, since his reincarnation under Jean-Gaspard Deburau, he wears neither collar nor hat, only a black skullcap. The defining characteristic of Pierrot is his naïveté: he is seen as a fool, always the butt of pranks, yet nonetheless trusting. It was a generally buffoonish Pierrot that held the European stage for the first two centuries of his history. And yet early signs of a respectful, even sympathetic attitude toward the character appeared in the plays of Jean-François Regnard and in the paintings of Antoine Watteau, an attitude that would deepen in the nineteenth century, after the Romantics claimed the figure as their own. For Jules Janin and Théophile Gautier, Pierrot was not a fool but an avatar of the post-Revolutionary People, struggling, sometimes tragically, to secure a place in the bourgeois world. And subsequent artistic/cultural movements found him equally amenable to their cause: the Decadents turned him, like themselves, into a disillusioned disciple of Schopenhauer, a foe of Woman and of callow idealism; the Symbolists saw him as a lonely fellow-sufferer, crucified upon the rood of soulful sensitivity, his only friend the distant moon; the Modernists converted him into a Whistlerian subject for canvases devoted to form and color and line. In short, Pierrot became an alter-ego of the artist, specifically of the famously alienated artist of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His physical insularity; his poignant lapses into mutism, the legacy of the great mime Deburau; his white face and costume, suggesting not only innocence but the pallor of the dead; his often frustrated pursuit of Columbine, coupled with his never-to-be vanquished unworldly naïveté—all conspired to lift him out of the circumscribed world of the Commedia dell'Arte and into the larger realm of myth. Much of that mythic quality still adheres to the "sad clown" of the postmodern era.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Pierrot

   pye-rō′, n. a buffoon with loose long-sleeved white robe: an 18th-century women's low-cut basque, with sleeves. [Fr.]

Suggested ResourcesRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. pierrot

   Song lyrics by pierrot -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by pierrot on the Lyrics.com website.

Etymology and OriginsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Pierrot

   French for “Little Peter.”

Surnames Frequency by Census RecordsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. PIERROT

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Pierrot is ranked #61745 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
   
   The Pierrot surname appeared 325 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Pierrot.
   
   67.6% or 220 total occurrences were Black.
   22.1% or 72 total occurrences were White.
   5.8% or 19 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
   2.7% or 9 total occurrences were of two or more races.

Matched Categories

1. • Fictional Character

Anagrams for pierrot »

1. pretoir

How to pronounce pierrot?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say pierrot in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of pierrot in Chaldean Numerology is: 2

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of pierrot in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Popularity rank by frequency of use