a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
mid-15c., "written statement calling attention to" something, "public notice" (of anything, but often of a sale); from Fr. avertissement, from stem of avertir (see advertise). Meaning "public notice" (usually paid), the main modern sense, emerged 1580s and was fully developed by 18c.