jester

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noun

A person whose words or actions provoke or are intended to provoke amusement or laughter: clown, comedian, comic, farceur, funnyman, humorist, joker, jokester, quipster, wag², wit, zany. Informal card. See laughter.

A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce

n.

An officer formerly attached to a king's household, whose business it was to amuse the court by ludicrous actions and utterances, the absurdity being attested by his motley costume. The king himself being attired with dignity, it took the world some centuries to discover that his own conduct and decrees were sufficiently ridiculous for the amusement not only of his court but of all mankind. The jester was commonly called a fool, but the poets and romancers have ever delighted to represent him as a singularly wise and witty person. In the circus of to-day the melancholy ghost of the court fool effects the dejection of humbler audiences with the same jests wherewith in life he gloomed the marble hall, panged the patrician sense of humor and tapped the tank of royal tears.

    The widow-queen of Portugal
        Had an audacious jester
    Who entered the confessional
        Disguised, and there confessed her.
    
    "Father," she said, "thine ear bend down --
        My sins are more than scarlet:
    I love my fool -- blaspheming clown,
        And common, base-born varlet."
    
    "Daughter," the mimic priest replied,
        "That sin, indeed, is awful:
    The church's pardon is denied
        To love that is unlawful.
    
    "But since thy stubborn heart will be
        For him forever pleading,
    Thou'dst better make him, by decree,
        A man of birth and breeding."
    
    She made the fool a duke, in hope
        With Heaven's taboo to palter;
    Then told a priest, who told the Pope,
        Who damned her from the altar!
                                                            Barel Dort

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IN BRIEF: n. - A professional clown employed to entertain a king or nobleman in the middle ages.

Tutor's tip: A good "jester" (a person who tells jokes) will use "gestures" (movements to express an attitude) to make the jokes even funnier.

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For a list of words related to jester, see:

• Occupations and Job Titles
• Actors, Characters, and Theater People - jester: fool
• Behavior or Personality

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See words rhyming with "jester."

Dansk (Danish)
n. - spøgefugl, hofnar

Nederlands (Dutch)
nar

Français (French)
n. - (Hist) bouffon, plaisantin, farceur

Deutsch (German)
n. - Narr, Spaßmacher

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - χωρατατζής, (ιστ.) γελωτοποιός

Italiano (Italian)
buffone, pagliaccio

Português (Portuguese)
n. - comediante (m) (f), bobo (m) da corte

Русский (Russian)
шутник

Español (Spanish)
n. - bufón, guasón, bromista

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - skämtare, kvickhuvud, gycklare

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
讲笑话的人, 小丑, 弄臣

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 講笑話的人, 小丑, 弄臣

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 어릿광대, 농담을 좋아하는 사람

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 道化師, 冗談を言う人, おどけ者

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مهرج, مضحك‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮ליצן, ליצן החצר‬

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