Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Jester |
JesterNoun1. A professional clown employed to to entertain a king or nobleman in the middle ages. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "jester" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
Note: Jester \Jest"er\, noun. [Compare to Gestour.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | JESTER, 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. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of a jester, foretells you will ignore important things in looking after silly affairs. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A court jester is a clown or buffoon employed in the service of a king or other ruling monarch for entertainment.
The court jester was often summoned to try to lift the monarch out of an angry or melancholy mood. A jester typically wears a floppy, three-pointed hat made of cloth fabric with jingle bells at the points. The three points of the hat represent the asses' ears and tail worn by jesters in earlier times. The joker wears a colorful suit of clothing called a motley, laughs incessantly, and often holds a mock scepter in his hand. Court jesters were typically selected from the peasantry within the monarch's dominion.See also: Rigoletto (opera)
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Court jester."
Synonym: JesterSynonym: fool (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Humorist | Noun: humorist, wag, wit, reparteeist, epigrammatist, punster; bel esprit, life of the party; wit-snapper, wit-cracker, wit-worm; joker, jester, Joe Miller, drole de corps, gaillard, spark; bon diable; practical joker. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Jester |
| English words defined with "jester": bauble, Bourder ♦ Droller ♦ Japer, Joculator ♦ motley, Motley-minded, multicolor, multicolored, multicolour, multicoloured ♦ painted, particolored, particoloured, piebald, pied ♦ Railleur ♦ Scurrile ♦ varicolored, varicoloured. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "jester": Baccoch ♦ Fools ♦ Gonnella's Horse ♦ JACK PUDDING ♦ MERRY ANDREW, MR ♦ scepter ♦ Wamba ♦ Yorick ♦ ZANY. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "jester": juggler. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | A jester unemployed is nobody's fool (The Court Jester; writing credit: Melvin Frank and Norman Panama.) You don't seem to understand, Jester, this isn't just another disco drug deal (Radioactive Dreams; writing credit: Albert Pyun) Catch a Rising Jester. (AlfTales; writing credit: Bradley Kesden; Mitchell Kriegman) I know, he'll make me court jester. (The Adventures of Robin Hood; writing credit: Norman Reilly Raine ; Seton I. Miller) You are simply my jester. (Gilmore Girls; writing credit: Povl Erik Carstensen; Sebastian Dorset) | |
Lyrics | The jester stole his thorny crown (American Pie; performing artist: Don McLean) When the jester sang for the king and queen (American Pie; performing artist: Don McLean) With the jester on the sidelines in a cast (American Pie; performing artist: Don McLean) Now he's a court jester (Paradise City; performing artist: Guns N' Roses) The yellow jester does not play (THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING; performing artist: King Crimson) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Jittery Jester (1958) The Court Jester (1956) King's Jester (1935) Simon the Jester (1925) The Jester Simon (1915) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | If dreams came true. And thanks to fate, the grim jester, he got his wish. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Scene from Shakespeare's "As you like it," showing H.V. Esmond as a jester, Fay Davis, and Julia Neilson in garden, with castle in background. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Jester. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Jester and Myrtle. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |
| "Jester pumpkin" by JR Goleno Commentary: "My latest pumpkin carving this Halloween." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Play | Caption |
 | Clown; clowny; funny; horn; honk; honking; joker; antic; buffoon; comedian; comic; cut-up; dolt; droll; farceur; fool; funnyman; gagman; gagster; harlequin; humorist; jester; jokesmith; jokester; madcap; merry-Andrew; merrymaker; mime; mountebank; mummer. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | SCEPTER, n. A king's staff of office, the sign and symbol of his authority. It was originally a mace with which the sovereign admonished his jester and vetoed ministerial measures by breaking the bones of their proponents. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Jester" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 75.38% of the time. "Jester" is used about 65 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 75.38% | 49 | 48,677 |
| Noun (proper) | 24.62% | 16 | 87,710 |
| Total | 100.00% | 65 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "jester" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Jester | Last name | 2,000 | 6,360 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
Expression using "jester": court jester. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "jester": jester-king. | |
Ending with "jester": court-jester. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
jester hat | 536 | art clip jester | 8 |
jester | 447 | joe rocket jester hat | 8 |
court jester | 71 | jester mask | 8 |
jester tattoo | 62 | court jester costume | 8 |
jester costume | 50 | image jester | 7 |
jester picture | 45 | art jester | 7 |
jester wicked | 37 | jester doll | 7 |
jester park | 22 | king jester | 7 |
joe rocket jester shirt | 21 | jester skull | 6 |
font jester | 21 | jerking jester | 6 |
jester pic | 19 | drawing jester | 6 |
evil jester | 18 | jester joke | 6 |
the jester | 14 | jester clothing | 6 |
jester record | 14 | boot jester | 6 |
the court jester picture | 13 | golf jester park | 6 |
jester hairston | 12 | jester medieval | 5 |
iowa jester park | 11 | interactive jester | 5 |
jester shirt | 10 | court jester pic | 5 |
clipart jester | 10 | jester clown | 5 |
jester park golf course | 9 | jester shirt t | 5 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "jester"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | nar (buffoon, clown). (various references) | |
Albanian | shakaxhi (funnyman, funster, joker, mountebank, quiz, wag, waggish), shakatar (humorist, humourist, jocular, joker, joky, macaronic, playful, prankish, prankster), karagjoz (cutup, droll, laughing stock, zany), bufon (buffoon, droll, merry andrew, stooge, zany). (various references) | |
Arabic | مهرج (buffoon, clown, harlequin, joker), مضحك (buffoon, burlesque, clown, comedian, comic, comical, comics, droll, farcical, foolish, funny, harlequin, humorous, laughable, laughing, ludicrous, merry andrew, ridiculous, risible, silly, wag), المنكت, المولع بالسخرية, المزاح. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | смешник (funnyman, funster, merry andrew, mime, scaramouch, zany), шут (cutup, fool, merry andrew, mime, poll, scaramouch, shot, zany), шегаджия (banter, chaffer, funnyman, humorist, humourist, joker, jollier, quiz), палячо (buffoon, clown, fool, goon, tomfool, zany). (various references) | |
Chinese | 供人潮笑者. (various references) | |
Czech | šprýmař (card, comedian, comic, joker, tease, teaser, wag), šašek (antics, clown, fool, merry andrew, mimic, squirt, zany). (various references) | |
Dutch | hansworst (buffoon), clown (buffoon, clown). (various references) | |
Esperanto | arlekeno (buffoon). (various references) | |
Faeroese | fívil (buffoon, clown). (various references) | |
Farsi | شوخ (Blithe, Gay, Jocose, Jocular, Jocularity, Joker, Mower, Quizzical, Waggish, Witty), دلقک (Buffoon, Fool, Pantaloon, Stooge). (various references) | |
Finnish | ilveilijä (clown), ilvehtijä (wag). (various references) | |
French | plaisantin, farceur, bouffon, baladin, arlequin. (various references) | |
Frisian | harlekijn (buffoon). (various references) | |
German | spaßvogel (banterer, funster, joker, quipster), spaßmacher (clown, joker). (various references) | |
Greek | γελωτοποιόσ (buffoon, clown, merry andrew, zany), γελωτοποιός, χωρατατζήσ (joker), αστειολόγοσ (jocular, wag). (various references) | |
Hebrew | ליצן (buffoon, clown, droll, fool, harlequin, jack-pudding, scoffer, wag, zany), לץ (droll, joker, playful), גחכן, בדחן (buffoon, comedian, humorist, joker, raconteur). (various references) | |
Hungarian | udvari bolond (court clown, court jester). (various references) | |
Indonesian | pelawak (comic, joker, mime), banyol (clown, comedian, joker, rascal, wag), badut (buffoon, clown, harlequin). (various references) | |
Italian | giullare (jongleur, minstrel), buffone (buffoon, clown, droll, fool, joker, zany), beffardo (derisive, mocking, quizzical, scornful, sneering). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 道化者 (a buffoon), 道化方 (comic in a play). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | どうけがた (comic in a play), どうけもの (a buffoon). (various references) | |
Korean | 농담하는 사람 (joker). (various references) | |
Malay | badut (buffoon, clown). (various references) | |
Manx | spotcheyder (joker), gamshoge (buffoon, droll, joker). (various references) | |
Norwegian | spøkefugl, narr. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | esterjay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | zombador (derider, mordacious, quizzical, scoffer, scoffing, scornful), mofador, gracejador (droll, fibber, jesting, jocular, joker, jollier, playful, wag), brincalhão (frisky, frolic, gamesome, jesting, jocular, joker, joky, kittenish, larky, mischievous, playful, prankish, rollicking, sportful, sporting, sportive, tricksy, waggish, wanton), bobo (buffoon, clown, droll, fool, goof, gull, half-wit, idiot, imbecile, jerk, lout, merry andrew, ninny, ninny-hammer, pantaloon, scaramouch, silly, stupid, zany), arlequim (buffoon, harlequin, pantaloon). (various references) | |
Romanian | om glumeţ (gay bird, joker), mucalit (jestful, jesting, joker, pawkily, pawky, wag, waggish), mãscãrici (antic, clown), bufon (antic, buffoon, butt, cut up, fool, harlequin, merry andrew, mugger, pantaloon, zany). (various references) | |
Russian | шут (buffoon, clown, droll, fool, harlequin, man of motley, merry andrew, mountebank, tomfool, zany). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | pajac (buffoon), lakrdijaš (buffoon, macaroon, pantaloon, pierrot, punchinello, zany), dvorska budala (droll). (various references) | |
Spanish | pícaro (crafty, imp, naughty, picaroon, rascal, rascally, rogue, roguish, saucy, scalawag, scallawag, scallywag, scamp, scapegrace, street smart, tinker), mozo (barman, busboy, inamorato, junior, kid, killer, lad, laddie, porter, railway porter, server, waiter, young, young man), guasón (jesting, jocose, joker, jokey, joking, playful, sporty, tease, teaser, teasing), bufón (buffoon, clown, fool, merry andrew, zany), bromista (facetious, humorist, humourist, joker, prankster, teaser, wag). (various references) | |
Sranan | payasi (buffoon). (various references) | |
Swedish | skämtare (funster, joker, wag). (various references) | |
Thai | ตัวตลก (butt, comedian, fool, joker, mime). (various references) | |
Turkish | soytarı (buffoon, clown, fool, harlequin, Judy, merry andrew, zany), maskara (antic, buffoon, butt, fool, laughing stock, laughingstock, mascara, masquerader, mummer, wanton, zany), şakacı (banterer, bel esprit, buffoon, facetious, funster, humorist, humoristic, jesting, jocose, jocular, joker, playful, puckish, quizzical, wag, waggish, wisecracker). (various references) | |
Turkmen | masgarabaz. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | жартівник (droll, humorist, humourist, joker), блазень (antic, aper, banana, buffoon, clown, harlequin, motley, mountebank, owl-glass, tomfool, zany). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | người hay nói đùa (chaffer, wag). (various references) | |
Welsh | croesan (buffoon), cellweiriwr (trifler). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | balatro, ridiculi. (various references) |
| Medieval Latin | 700-1500 | ministralis. (various references) |
| Italian | 900-Modern | buffone. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "jester": jesters. (additional references) | |
| |
"Jester" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Gerster, gester, hester, jaster, jecter, jector, jeeter, Jesser, Jessmer, jesta, jesto, jestor, jete, jeter, Jetez, jetr, jetser, jetter, jewster, Jictar, Joezer, joste, joster, jowster, juser, juste, juter, kester, Kestner, zester. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "jester" (pronounced je"ster) |
| 4 | -e" s t er | ester, fester, investor, molester, nester, Nestor, pester, polyester, requester, rester, semester, sequester, tester, trimester, Wester. |
| 3 | -s t er | dumpster, duster, Easter, adjuster, administer, alabaster, ancestor, aster, banister, bannister, barrister, blaster, blister, blockbuster, bluster, bolster, booster, broadcaster, burgomaster, Buster, canister, cannister, caster, Castor, cloister, cluster, coaster, concertmaster, coster, Dempster, Dexter, digester, disaster, faster, Feaster, filibuster, fluster, forecaster, Forester, Foster, gangbuster, gangster, Gaster, grandmaster, hamster, harvester, headmaster, heister, holster, huckster, imposter, impostor, juster, keister, kiester, lackluster, laster, Leister, Lister, lobster, Luster, lustre, master, minister, Minster, Mister, mobster, monster, muenster, Munster, muster, newscaster, oldster, oleaster, ouster, oyster, paster, pastor, pilaster, plaster, pollster, poster, postmaster, prankster, protester, quartermaster, raster, register, ringmaster, roadster, roaster, roister, rooster, roster, royster, schoolmaster, scoutmaster, seamster, shyster, sinister, sister, spinster, sportscaster, stepsister, taskmaster, taster, teamster, thruster, tipster, toaster, toastmaster, transistor, trickster, twister, Ulster, upholster, waster, Webster, youngster, zoster. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-e-j-r-s-t" | |
-1 letter: ester, jeers, jetes, reest, reset, steer, stere, terse, trees. | |
-2 letters: erst, jeer, jees, jest, jete, jets, rees, rest, rete, rets, seer, sere, tees, tree. | |
-3 letters: ere, ers, jee, jet, ree, res, ret, see, ser, set, tee. | |
-4 letters: er, es, et, re. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-j-r-s-t" | |
+1 letter: jesters, rejects, resojet. | |
+2 letters: ejectors, jerkiest, jokester, reejects, resojets, serjeant, superjet. | |
+3 letters: jetliners, jokesters, junketers, reinjects, rejackets, rejectees, rejecters, rejectors, reobjects, serjeants, serjeanty, superjets. | |
+4 letters: interjects, jesuitries, jitteriest, junketeers, majorettes, readjusted, rejections, surjective. | |
+5 letters: bijouteries, conjectures, electrojets, jitteriness, jointresses, pejoratives, projectiles, rejuvenates, serjeanties, superjacent, tearjerkers. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Sounds 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Usage Frequency 12. Names: Frequency | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Translations: Ancient | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
