clown
n. countablen. an entertainer who wears funny clothes and a painted face to make people laugh. You usually see them at a circus or a party doing silly tricks.
n. a comic performer, typically in a circus or pantomime, who uses slapstick, exaggerated costumes, and makeup to elicit laughter.
The clown made a balloon animal for the child.
During the circus intermission, a clown ran into the ring and started tripping over his own oversized shoes.
While the traditional image of the clown is one of joy and slapstick humor, modern psychological studies often explore why some people find the painted mask deeply unsettling.
From earlier clowne, cloyne (“man of rustic or coarse manners, boor, peasant”); likely of North Germanic origin, akin to Icelandic klunni (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Swedish kluns (“clumsy fellow”), all from Middle Low German klunz, from klunt (“pile, lump, something thick”); according to Pokorny, this could be related to a group of Germanic derivatives of Proto-Indo-European gel- (“to ball up; amass”), such as Proto-West Germanic klott (“lump”), Proto-Germanic klūtaz (“clod, lump”), kultaz (“lump, bundle”), etc. Alternatively, directly from Low German (compare North Frisian klönne (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Dutch kluns (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Dutch kloen (“uncouth person, lout”)), themselves from the same ultimate source as above. Unlikely from Latin colōnus (“colonist, farmer”), although learned awareness of this term may have influenced semantic development.
When used as a verb, it is often followed by the particle 'around' to mean behaving in a silly or foolish way.