sideshown.
/ˈsʌɪdʃəʊ/, U.S. /ˈsaɪdˌʃoʊ/ 1. A show which is subsidiary to a larger one; a minor attraction in an exhibition or entertainment.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > inferiority or baseness > inferior thing > [noun] > subservient
adjective1597
subordinate1638
subservient1643
sideshow1846
society > leisure > entertainment > place of amusement or entertainment > fairground or amusement park > [noun] > side-show
sideshow1846
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > a public show or spectacle > type of show or spectacle > [noun] > subsidiary
sideshow1846
1846 Spirit of Times 19 Dec. 505/2 He seceded from the Caravan, and set up a ‘side show’, travelling with the Menagerie as an independent satellite.
1855 P. T. Barnum Life xii. 316 In attending to what might be termed my ‘side shows’, or temporary enterprises, I have never neglected the American Museum.
1893 Daily News 11 Jan. 2/3 A charity bazaar, and..the entertainments which are given at those places in what are called the side shows.
1919 D. H. Lawrence in Strand Mag. Apr. 288/2 The roundabouts were veering round and grinding out their music, the side-shows were making as much commotion as possible.
1957 London Mag. Dec. 19 There is a pier with all the usual sideshows, hot dogs, hamburger and ice cream stands.
2010 Guardian 26 June (Review section) 2/2 In fact, it was more of an extended concert, with none of the sideshows and fringery we've come to expect of a festival.
2. A minor or secondary event, issue, or factor, esp. one which distracts attention from something more important; (Military slang) a minor engagement or battle, a skirmish (cf. show n.1 19c).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [noun] > that which is unimportant > subsidiary
by-matter1552
by-point1610
by-passage1674
by-consideration1691
by-thing1721
by-interest1801
by-play1816
sideshow1855
1855 Western Lit. Messenger Mar. 14/1 It is intended to make our sublunary sphere a blissful paradise, to which Heaven itself shall be but a side-show.
1866 C. H. Smith (title) Bill Arp, so called. A side show of the Southern side of the War.
1869 ‘M. Twain’ Innocents Abroad liii. 573 And so I close my chapter on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre... With all its clap-trap side-shows and unseemly impostures of every kind.
1900 Westm. Gaz. 11 Sept. 2/1 The ‘side shows’, as the various sectional meetings are termed, were all well attended.
1931 T. E. Lawrence Let. 13 Apr. (1938) 718 Its chapters on the side-shows [of the war] are so crisply black-and-white as to make exciting stories of them.
1959 Listener 12 Mar. 444/1 Not even sideshows in the Yemen or police operations by the army in a riotous colony will save them.
1977 P. Moyes To kill Coconut xiii. 178 ‘What in hell is going on up in the forest.’.. ‘I told you, that's a side-show.’
2015 Leicester Mercury (Nexis) 19 Feb. 64 He insists he will not be distracted by a sideshow as City fight for survival.
Compounds
General attributive (chiefly in sense 1). See also sideshowman n.
ΚΠ
1869 Boston Daily Advertiser 10 May The writer painfully recalls the experience of Massachusetts democrats in this side-show business.
1886 World (N.Y.) 25 Apr. 11 Smith and de old guy stop to look at the pictures and listen to de cacklers and cappers outside de side-show tent.
1894 Daily News 28 June 6/5 With so little side-show attraction.
1910 H. A. Franck Vagabond Journey 276 The secretary was a man..with the voice of a side-show barker.
1961 Times Lit. Suppl. 27 Jan. 62/2 A dumb sideshow stooge whose daily routine consists of being exhibited in a pit which he has to dig for himself.
1993 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 4 July b4 Two days later, the Allies landed in Normandy, and Italy immediately tumbled into sideshow status.
2013 Daily Tel. 20 Dec. 37/3 A sideshow magician borne by a tornado from sepia-tinted Kansas to a colourful wonderland.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1846