Entry: harlequin (n.)
In context: "Aubrey DeLint was sitting back up beside them, the cold giving his pitted cheeks a second flush, two feverish harlequin ovals."
Definition: A buffoon in general; a fantastic fellow.
but more interestingly:
A character in Italian comedy, subsequently in French light comedy; in English pantomime a mute character supposed to be invisible to the clown and pantaloon; he has many attributes of the clown (his rival in the affections of Columbine) with the addition of mischievous intrigue; he usually wears particoloured bespangled tights and a visor, and carries a light ‘bat’ of lath as a magic wand.
Other:
SNOOT score: 1
Page: 681
Source: Oxford English Dictionary
Definitive Jest is a vocabulary-building and SNOOT-approved word-of-the-day blog centered around David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.
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