clown

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
clown/klaʊn/

▶noun

• 1 a comic entertainer, especially one in a circus, wearing a traditional costume and exaggerated make-up.

  ■ a playful, amusing person.

• 2 a foolish or incompetent person.

• 3 archaic an unsophisticated country person.

▶verb act comically or playfully.

– derivatives
clownish adjective,
clownishly adverb,
clownishness noun.

– origin C16: perh. of Low Ger. origin.