Other forms: acrobats
An acrobat is a performer of daring feats of balance and agility. Tumbling, the high wire, and being thrown through the air.
The circus is the traditional home, and the word covers tightrope walkers, trapeze artists and tumblers alike. It comes from Greek words meaning to walk on tiptoe, which describes the high-wire version exactly. The adjective acrobatic is used well beyond the circus, so an acrobatic save in football is a spectacular one, and verbal acrobatics is a sceptical phrase for clever but strained reasoning.
1nounacrobatAn entertainer who performs feats of balance and agility.
“Three acrobats came on after the clowns.”
An acrobat walks on the tips. Greek akron means the highest or furthest point and bainō means to walk, so akrobateō was to walk on tiptoe.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂eḱ-
French
acrobate
English, today
acrobat
Built from
From French acrobate. From acrobate, from ἀκροβάτης, from ἀκροβατέω (“to walk on tiptoe”), from ἄκρον (“highest or farthest point, mountain top, peak”) + βαίνω (“to walk, step”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA