Buffoon is a Jester (q.v.), from the Ital. buffa, 'a trick.' From the same word comes buffo, 'a comic actor or singer;' and the French name, opera-bouffe, for comic opera.
Buffoon
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 2: Beaugency to Cataract, p. 526
Source scan(s): p. 0537