ring

→ French: ring
→ Romanian: ring

→ Hungarian: ring

→ Italian: ring

→ Japanese: リング

→ Polish: ring

→ Serbo-Croatian: ring

→ Spanish: ring

→ Turkish: ring

From Middle English ryng, from Old English hring (“ring, circle”), from Proto-West Germanic *hring, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“ring”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)krengʰ-, extended nasalized form of *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Doublet of rank and rink, as well as indirectly range.
Cognates
* West Frisian ring
* Low German Ring
* Dutch ring
* German Ring
* Swedish ring
* Finnish rengas

Place me, O, place me in the dusty ring, / Where youthful charioteers contend for glory.

1707, Edmund Smith, Phaedra and Hippolitus:

A place where some sports or exhibitions take place; notably a circular or comparable arena, such as a boxing ring or a circus ring; hence the field of a political contest.

The open space in front of a racecourse stand, used for betting purposes.


turn

→ Japanese: ターン (tān)

Partly from Anglo-Norman *torn, from Latin turnus, from Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos), and partly an action noun from the verb turn.

պտույտ

movement about an axis ending up with the same orientation

360° turn

movement about an axis returning to the original orientation

the first turn of the screw pays all debts

Between the pieces were individual turns, comic songs and dances.

1960, Theatre Notebook, volumes 14-16, page 122:

(circus, theater, especially physical comedy) A short skit, act, or routine.

numero

circus, theatre: short skit, act, or routine


joey

From Joseph Grimaldi (1778–1837), a popular English entertainer.


clown

From earlier clowne, cloyne (“man of rustic or coarse manners, boor, peasant”); likely of North Germanic origin, akin to Icelandic klunni (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Swedish kluns (“clumsy fellow”), all from Middle Low German klunz, from klunt (“pile, lump, something thick”); according to Pokorny, this could be related to a group of Germanic derivatives of Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up; amass”), such as Proto-West Germanic *klott (“lump”), Proto-Germanic *klūtaz (“clod, lump”), *kultaz (“lump, bundle”), etc.
Alternatively, directly from Low German (compare North Frisian klönne (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Dutch kluns (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Dutch kloen (“uncouth person, lout”)), themselves from the same ultimate source as above.
Unlikely from Latin colōnus (“colonist, farmer”), although learned awareness of this term may have influenced semantic development.

cog

Over there in Norway, the churches all burn down / Let's go dress in goth clothes and get painted like a clown

2008, Lich King, “Black Metal Sucks”, in Toxic Zombie Onslaught:

A slapstick performance artist often associated with a circus and usually characterized by bright, oversized clothing, a red nose, face paint, and a brightly colored wig.


big top

He had been a big top performer in his youth, but in a twist of fate he had run away to become an investment banker.

(by extension) The circus; the circus lifestyle.


circus

en-noun

circus (plural circuses or (rare) circusses or (rare) circi)

circuses (plural)
circusses (plural rare)
circi (plural rare)

Borrowed from Latin circus (“ring, circle”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-, *ker- (“to turn, to bend”). Doublet of cirque. Displaced native Old English hringsetl (literally “ring seat”).

ncog

(military, World War II) A code name for bomber attacks with fighter escorts in the day time. The attacks were against short-range targets with the intention of occupying enemy fighters and keeping their fighter units in the area concerned.


blockhead

Waldo was sent that from an elderly blockhead named Fuzzy in Gibtown, Florida. That's the town to which most freaks retire.

2005, Brian M. Wiprud, Stuffed, →ISBN, page 262:

He is a classic sideshow performer, entertaining crowds with feats such as sword swallowing, fire-eating, and chainsaw juggling. His specialty, however, is the human blockhead act, hammering six-inch nails up his nostrils.

2014, Louis J. Parascandola, John Parascandola -, A Coney Island Reader: Through Dizzy Gates of Illusion, →ISBN, page 306:

Burkhardt was a legendary figure in the sideshow world, a mentor and instructor to a new generation of blockheads and other working acts who now train in private classes at Coney Island USA's Sideshow School with Burkhardt's disciple Todd Robbins (Zigun 2006).

2016, M. Chemers, Staging Stigma: A Critical Examination of the American Freak Show, →ISBN:

A sideshow performer who hammers nails or similar items through his or her nostril into the nasal cavity; a human blockhead.


circus ring

A circular arena in a circus, where the acts are performed.

sirkusareena

arena in a circus where acts are performed


strongman

Giovanni Battista Belzoni, the famous Egyptian archeologist, who was a man of gigantic stature, began his public career as a strongman at the Bartholomew Fair, under the management of Gyngell, the conjuror, who dubbed him The Young Hercules.

1920, Harry Houdini, chapter 11, in Miracle Mongers and Their Methods:

Someone who performs feats of strength, sometimes in competitions or in a circus.


contortion

en-noun

contortion (countable and uncountable, plural contortions)

The act of contorting, twisting or deforming something, especially oneself.

A form of acrobatic display which involves the dramatic bending and flexing of the human body.

柔身術 /柔身术

a form of acrobatic display which involves the dramatic bending and flexing of the human body


tightrope

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-tightrope.wav

A tightly stretched rope or cable on which acrobats perform high above the ground.


sideshow

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sideshow.wav

sideshow
sideshow (automobile exhibition)

1999 November 8, Frank Hayes, The Back Page: The main event, Computerworld, page 86,
And IT people dismiss IT′s impact because, hey, we like being a sideshow to the real action.

1999, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Year Book, Australia, Number 81, page 349,
Other recreation services, including amusement parks or arcades, sideshows, circuses and agricultural shows, accounted for another 666 businesses. These businesses employed 10,318 persons and a further 3,518 volunteers.

In Australia he busked (singing on street corners), steeplejacked, was a drover and sheep shearer, did motor bike stunts in sideshows and even painted the Sydney Harbor^([sic]) Bridge.

2002, Steve Evans, Ron Middlebrook, Cowboy Guitars, page 146:

They taught the twins to play saxophone and transferred them from the sideshow to vaudeville.

2005, Joe Nickell, Secrets of the Sideshows, page 126:

Entertainment features and sideshows enhanced attendance.

2006, Lynda Mannik, Canadian Indian Cowboys in Australia: Representation, Rodeo, and the RCMP at the Royal Easter Show, 1939, page 13:

Don′t miss the rusty relics dredged up from the original pier, and the spooky old sideshow machines.

2009, Charles Rawlings-Way, Meg Worby, Lindsay Brown, Paul Harding, Central Australia: Adelaide to Darwin, Lonely Planet, page 63:

1972 October 14, Henry Johnston, U.S. Tune Wins Rio Festival, Billboard, page 64,
Sideshows for foreign guests included one provided by Philips manager Andre Midani with his chief recording artists including Chico Buarque, Jorge Ben, Gal Costa Quintato, and Violado.

A minor attraction at a larger event such as a circus, fair or music festival.


carny

carny (countable and uncountable, plural carnies)

The Reverend Foster, self-ordained—or directly ordained by God, depending on authority cited—had an instinct for the pulse of his times stronger than that of a skilled carnie sizing up a mark.

1961, Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land, New York: Avon, →OCLC, page 276:

Bart spies an opportunity to make a quick buck so he channels his inner carny and posits his sinking house as a natural wonder of the world and its inhabitants as freaks, barking to dazzled spectators, “Behold the horrors of the Slanty Shanty! See the twisted creatures that dwell within! Meet Cue-Ball, the man with no hair!”

2012 May 20, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Marge Gets A Job” (season 4, episode 7; originally aired 11/05/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club:

(informal, countable) A person who works in a carnival (often one who uses exaggerated showmanship or fraud).

(uncountable) The jargon used by carnival workers.


aerialist

/ˈɛəɹɪəlɪst/

[…] I chanced once, when I called during the day, to meet at the rehearsal M’lle Clarisse, the aerialist […] I looked at her carefully, and I could not divest myself of the impression that she was, in spite of her compact and strongly built little frame, much too delicate and fragile a person to go flying through the air from trapeze to trapeze.

1879 December, Edward Dusseault, “Recollections of Other Days”, in Ballou’s Monthly Magazine, volume 50, number 6, page 564:

Of the two ways of making love, adultery must seem the safer, as the aerialist engaged in it swings to an eventual stop, or else lands in marriage itself which is strung out protectively under the highwire. Whereas a man failing in marriage has nothing to break the tumble.

1959, Peter De Vries, chapter 14, in The Tents of Wickedness, Boston: Little Brown, page 210:

The migratory birds
have flown the coop
but they’ll be back
with their built-in compass.
They’ll come back the way
the circus does each year—
with aerialists, our angular
birds that loop the loop.

1969 December 14, Anne Sexton, “Eighteen Days Without You”, in The Complete Poems, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, published 1981, pages 216–217:

There was a good-looking Argentinian couple standing in the open flap of their tent. They were aerialists, checking over each other’s harnesses, testing the strength of the metal grommets where the guy wires would be attached to them.

2015, John Irving, chapter 16, in Avenue of Mysteries, New York: Simon & Schuster:

Videos of their feats, showing Spiderman^([sic])-like aerialists clinging to stone facades and balcony edges before plunging streets into darkness with the flick of an elevated switch, have been popular on social media since the start of the trend.

2022 October 13, Constant Méheut, “With Leaps and Bounds, Parkour Athletes Turn Off the Lights in Paris”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-10-13:

An acrobat performing high off the ground, defying a fall to earth, as on a trapeze or a tightrope.


ringmaster

The person who manages the performers in a circus ring.

sprechstallmeister

the person who manages the performers in a circus ring


human pyramid

A tower made of people standing or kneeling on top of each other.

A formation of triangular shape with one or a small number of performers supporting a large number of other performers.


freak show

It only takes a little tweaking for the Simpsons’ home to become a full-on freak show, with Homer as its perpetually apoplectic main attraction.

An intentionally shocking exhibition of people with unusual characteristics, and which may include people who are gigantic, dwarfish, intersex, physically deformed or who have other extraordinary diseases, conditions and talents.


flea circus

A circus sideshow attraction in which fleas are attached (or appear to be attached) to miniature carts and other items, and encouraged to perform circus acts within a small housing.

vlooisirkus

circus sideshow attraction starring fleas


circuslike

en-adj

circuslike (comparative more circuslike, superlative most circuslike)

more circuslike (comparative)
most circuslike (superlative)

Resembling or characteristic of a circus.


circusy

circusy (comparative more circusy, superlative most circusy)

more circusy (comparative)
most circusy (superlative)

(informal) Resembling or characteristic of a circus.


balancing act

(entertainment) A performance that involves balancing things precariously and suspensefully.


balance board

A device used for recreation, athletic training, circus acts, etc. consisting of a rectangular or circular board on a fulcrum on which board the user attempts to balance.


object manipulation

Juggling is a form of object manipulation.

The performing art of manipulating one or more objects, principally using one's body.


rola bola

A balance board, usually in the context of circus or entertainment.


German wheel

First is the German Wheel, two metal hoops six feet in circumference, joined at six points. Inside, gymnast Chris Lashua rolls, turns and spins through a series of gravity-defying somersaults and acrobatics.

1997 February, “Big Top For Your Head”, in Orange Coast Magazine, page 36:

(circus arts) An apparatus made up of two large, usually steel rings joined together by a set of parallel steel bars.

roue allemande

An apparatus made of two large rings joined by a set of parallel bars.


three-ring circus

en-noun

three-ring circus (plural three-ring circuses)

A large circus in which three separate performances, each within its own circular enclosure, are staged simultaneously before a single audience.


Russian bar

(circus arts) A gymnastics-style beam held by two porters used to do gymnastics-style tricks.


wheel of death

(circus) A hollow wheel larger than a person, attached to and suspended from an axle, and inside of which an artist performs.

rueda de la muerte

large hollow wheel inside which an artist performs


human cannonball

human cannonball (plural human cannonballs)

A circus performer who is launched from a specially designed cannon.


sword swallowing

The act of passing a sword through the mouth and down the esophagus to the stomach, and then removing it.


human blockhead

human blockhead (plural human blockheads)

A performer who drives a nail or other implement into their nasal cavity, producing the illusion that it is being driven into a solid part of the head.


knife thrower

A performer who entertains by demonstrating skill in throwing knives.


not my circus, not my monkeys

I repeated it like a mantra: Not my circus. Not my monkeys. Except it was my circus. Because, as I lay there, I noticed all my things out of place from the room search. This was my circus. I was stuck with these monkeys.

2015, J. J. Johnson, Believarexic, Open Road Media, →ISBN:

none of my business
none of someone's business

(colloquial) It is not my problem; it's none of my business; indicates that one is not responsible for controlling or changing a volatile or delicate situation.

different clowns, same circus

likewise a circus metaphor emphasizing human folly


lion tamer

A circus performer who interacts with a lion as an entertainment.

oroszlánszelídítő

circus performer who interacts with a lion (or other big cat) as an entertainment


bed of nails

A piece of wood with nails pointing out of it, on which a performer lies as a circus trick.

szöges ágy

a piece of wood with nails pointing out of it, on which a performer lies as a circus trick


bee beard

A large number of honey bees depending from a person's face so as to resemble a beard; a common sideshow demonstration.


bearded lady

A woman with a beard, often appearing as a circus sideshow


armless wonder

A person who does not have any arms, and appears as a circus sideshow


chapeaugraphy

A piece of performance art in which the performer manipulates a piece of fabric into the shapes of various hats.


different clowns, same circus

same shit, different toilet
same shit, different toilet#English

(derogatory) Synonym of same shit, different toilet.


pad room

(entertainment) A tent or a dressing room for performers of the circus.