Other Names for Jesters
From the king’s personal jester to the traveling trickster, there is more than one name for the clever jester.
The court jester was a common persona in the Middle Ages and was an entertainer whose main tools were comedy, wit, tricks, and even songs and dance. Their main roles in court were to impress noblemen, kings, queens, and the court. With their humor and place in society, the court jesters played the joker and entertained their audience with quips, fun, and would even provide advice to their reigning king or queen.
Some other common synonyms for the court jester include the joker, trickster, fool, entertainer, buffoon, harlequin, or Pierrot.
While the term jester didn’t become widely used until Tudor times, they have been a part of history since the Fifth Dynasty in Egypt. The word jester originally came from the French word gestor, or jestour. The thesaurus links a jester with the role of a minstrel, or one who tells amusing stories.
While the modern jester has evolved in the character they portray, they still have some of the same basic traits. The modern jester’s most common synonym is the professional clown, bozo, comic, joker, fool, or entertainer.
While a jester is often someone who performs and jokes, the prankster and professional clown employed motley costumes and tricks, just as they have throughout jester history . Jester synonyms may have changed slightly over time, but according to history, the joker has always been a person who naturally amuses and entertains an audience.
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