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Stage 1 of 3
Gianni
Italian · medieval
"a nickname for John"
a pet form of Giovanni, 'John'
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Stage 2 of 3
Zanni
Venetian Italian · 1500s
"a comic servant character"
the dialect form of the name became the stock bumbling-servant character of commedia dell'arte
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Stage 3 of 3
zany
English · 1580s-1610s
"comically foolish, clownish"
entered as a noun for the stock fool character, then as an adjective for clownish, imitative foolishness
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