badaud means A person given to idle observation of everything, with wonder or astonishment; a credulous or gossipy idler. It carries an Arena rating of 1620, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, badaud ranks #246 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #1,389 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #1,780 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #4,075 of 17,163 for Funniest Words.
Why “badaud” is a great word
A credulous and gawking idler who stares at the world with perpetual, slack-jawed wonder. From French badaud, itself from Old Provençal badau (meaning a gawker or simpleton). Unlike the flâneur, who strolls with sophisticated, artistic detachment, or the mere spectator, who watches a defined event, the badaud is a passive vessel for spectacle, gullible and gossip-prone. It is the open-mouthed figure halted by a street-corner argument, the credulous consumer of a tabloid’s headline, the face pressed against the window of a shop selling cheap marvels—a portrait of urban life not as art, but as an endless, trivial sideshow for the easily amazed.
Etymology
From Occitan to French From French badaud.
noun
- A person given to idle observation of everything, with wonder or astonishment; a credulous or gossipy idler.e.g.“Pall Mall Magazine
a host of stories […] dealing chiefly with the subject of his great wealth, an ever delightful topic to the badauds of Paris.”
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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