'auguste' originates from French, specifically the word 'auguste', ultimately from Latin 'augustus' (from 'augere') where 'augustus' meant 'venerable, majestic'.

'auguste' passed from Latin 'augustus' into Old French and Modern French as 'auguste'; English borrowed the French form (both as an adjective meaning 'majestic' and as a proper name), and later specialized the French-derived noun 'auguste' to denote a comic clown role in modern circus traditions.

Initially, it meant 'venerable' or 'majestic' (as in the honorific title 'Augustus'); over time, the word was retained in literary use with that meaning but was also borrowed into circus vocabulary to name a clown character whose role is ironically unbecoming — a shift from dignity to comic folly.