saltimbanque

From French saltimbanque, from Italian saltimbanco, from saltare (“to jump”) + banco (“bench, platform, stage”).

saltimbanque (plural saltimbanques)

1. Tumbler, street acrobat.
   • 1956, “The New Pictures,” Time, 11 June, 1956,

     Circus is a simple, romantic ballet, set to some suitable music by France’s Jacques Ibert, laid in a village square of placardized baroque, and dressed in costumes that suggest the saltimbanques of Picasso.

   • 1960, Henry Miller, Nexus, Obelisk Press, Chapter 13,

     Another day my hands might wander over the keys with the felicity of a Borgia’s murderous paw. Choosing the staccato technique, I would ape the quibblers and quipsters of the Ghibellines. Or put it on, like a saltimbanque performing for a feeble-minded monarch.

   • 1988, Edmund White, The Beautiful Room is Empty, New York: Vintage International, 1994, Chapter One,

     Outside, saltimbanques of snow were leaping up and flipping backward.

From Italian saltimbanco.

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saltimbanque m (plural saltimbanques)

1. street entertainer

• “saltimbanque” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
• saltimbanque on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr