A female harlequin; a woman or girl who plays the role of a harlequin in pantomime or theater.
From 'harlequin' plus the feminine suffix '-a,' used to create feminine forms of nouns. The word preserves Italian theatrical traditions where character names had gender-marked forms.
Like many theatrical terms from Italian commedia dell'arte, 'harlequina' preserves the gendered character system—there was a male Harlequin and a female Harlequina, each with their own role and costume.
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