arch. and dial. Also 6–7 zani, zanie, 7 zane, zanee, zanni, (pl. zaneese), 8 zaney. [a. F. zani, or its source It. zani, zanni name of servants who act as clowns in the ‘Commedia dell’ arte.’
Properly, the Venetian and Lombardic form of Gianni = Giovanni John (cf. Zanipolo the title of the church of St. John and St. Paul in Venice) used as an appellative for a porter (or the like) from the mountain country of Bergamo who had taken service in a seaside town.
In the following the French word is app. intended:—
a. 1566. R. Edwards, Damon and Pithias (1571), F ij. Iacke. Iebit avow mon companion. Grimme. Ihar vow pleadge pety Zawne. Iacke. Can you speake Frenche, here is a trimme colier by this day.]
1. A comic performer attending on a clown, acrobat, or mountebank, who imitates his master’s acts in a ludicrously awkward way; a clown’s or mountebank’s assistant, a merry-andrew, jack-pudding; sometimes used vaguely for a professional jester or buffoon in general. Now Hist. or arch.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 463. Some carry-tale, some please-man, some slight Zanie,… That … knowes the trick To make my Lady laugh.
1596. Lodge, Wits Mis., M iv b. Here marcheth forth Scurilitie,… the first time he lookt out of Italy into England, it was in the habite of a Zani.
1599. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., IV. i. Hee’s like a Zani to a Tumbler, That tries trickes after him to make men laugh.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., I. v. 96. I protest I take these Wisemen … no better then the fooles Zanies.
1648. Winyard, Mids.-Moon, 2. Cheynell among the visitors, is a mountebanke extraordinary with 4 zanyes.
1652. Urquhart, Jewel, 104. They go … in the disguise of a Zanni or Pantaloon to ventilate their fopperies.
1682. New News fr. Tory-Land, 7. He may serve for some Zany to a Mountebank, to jest off Medicines for the Toothach to the Rabble in Southwark.
1760. C. Johnston, Chrysal, lxix. A mountebank-doctor, and his zany.
1810. Crabbe, Borough, vii. 66. There was a time, when we beheld the quack, On public stage, the licensed trade attack; He made his labour’d speech with poor parade; And then a laughing zany lent him aid.
1848. L. Hunt, Jar of Honey, vi. 75. Those who had flattered him most when a king, were the loudest in their contempt, now that he was the court-zany.
1883. Miss M. Betham-Edwards, Disarmed, viii. Everybody is good to the Court-fool, the zany!
2. Hence in transf. and allusive uses, with various shades of meaning: a. An attendant, follower, companion, assistant: almost always contemptuous (sometimes, hanger-on, parasite), and with direct reference to sense 1. Now rare or arch.
1601. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., II. iii. (Qo.). I pray thee be acquainted with my two Zanies [1616 Fol. hang-by’s] heere.
1602. Middleton, Blurt, III. i. E 2. Lady Imperia (the Curtezan’s Zani).
1616. R. C., Times’ Whistle (1871), 136. Ye Aristippian zanies,… Leave off at last your poysning honnied speach.
1631. Chapman, Cæsar & Pompey, IV. i. Protean fortune, and her zany, warre.
1673. Hickeringill, Greg. Fr.-Greyb., 50. The Directory, and the geud Covenant, (its zance).
1746. Francis, trans. Hor., Ep., I. xv. 37. A vagrant Zany, of no certain Manger, Who knew not, ere he din’d, or Friend or Stranger.
1746–7. Smollett, Advice, 181. To shine confess’d her zany and her tool, And fall by what I rose, low ridicule.
1760. H. Walpole, Lett. to G. Montagu, 24 Nov. On the Address, Pitt and his zany Beckford quarrelled.
1817. [see MOUNTEBANK sb. 2].
1880. Q. Rev., Jan., 14. St. John was not content to be a mere zany, he aspired to rival his master as a wit, and to outstrip him as a libertine.
1911. Athenæum, 25 March, 343/3. To figure as a zany of a peer.
† b. An imitator, mimic; esp. a poor, bad, feeble, or ludicrous imitator. Obs.
1606. Dekker, Seven Sins, v. 31. An Ape is Zani to a man, doing ouer those trickes … which hee sees done before him.
1627. Drayton, Ep. to H. Reynolds, 93. As th’ English Apes and very Zanies be of euery thing that they doe heare and see.
1678. Dryden, All for Love, Pref. b 3 b. They are for persecuting Horace and Virgil, in the persons of their Successors…. Some of their little Zanies yet go farther; for they are Persecutors even of Horace himself.
1730. Flying Post, 22 Dec. Their little Zanies about the Country have learnt their Cant.
c. One who resembles, or acts like, a merry-andrew or buffoon; one who plays the fool for the amusement, or so as to be the laughing-stock, of others. Now rare or Obs.
1606. Sir G. Goosecappe, III. i., in Bullen, Old Pl. (1884), III. 42. Goe too, you French Zanies you.
1630. Bp. Hall, Serm., 2 Tim. iii. 5, Wks. 1808, V. 393. What is a Hypocrite but a Player; the Zany of religion?
1728. Pope, Dunc., III. 206. Oh great Restorer of the good old Stage, Preacher at once, and Zany of thy age!
1790. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Adv. to Fut. Laureat, xv. I’ll not be Zany to a King, not I.
1846. Eclectic Rev., June, 662. Sydney Smith … was a West end chapel preacher,… a lecturer in Albemarle-street, and Zany to Holland-house.
e. A fool, simpleton, ‘idiot.’ Still dial.
a. 1784. Johnson, in R. Cumberland, Mem. (1806), I. 263. The lady asked me for no other purpose than to make a Zany of me.
1847. Tennyson, in Ld. Tennyson, Mem. (1897), I. 241. The printers are awful zanies, they print erasures and corrections too, and other sins they commit of the utmost inhumanity.
1862. Thackeray, Philip, iii. Whether Andrew was a genius, or whether he was a zany, was always a moot question.
1897. Watts-Dunton, Aylwin, III. i. A heaven for zanies and tom-fools!
3. attrib. That is a zany, or characteristic of a zany; † imitative; clownish; foolish, idiotic.
1616. Anton, Philos. Sat., C 2. Like a gorgeous robe, Purl’d ore with natures Ape, and Zany-art.
1618. J. Taylor (Water P.), Pennyles Pilgr., E 2. Nor Britaines Odcomb (Zanye braue Vlissis) In all his ambling saw the like as this is.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., xv. He will make some of your zany squires shake in their shoes.
1890. Hall Caine, Bondman, II. ii. Your zany doings have shut every other door against you.
