a person who amuses others by tricks, jokes, odd gestures and postures, etc.
2.
a person given to coarse or undignified joking.
Origin: 1540–50; earlier buffon < French < Italian buffone, equivalent to buff- (expressive base; compare buffa puff of breath, buffare to puff, puff up one's checks) + -one agent suffix ≪ Latin -ō, accusative -ōnem
1540s, "type of pantomime dance," 1580s, "clown," from M.Fr. bouffon (16c.), from It. buffone "jester," from buffare "to puff out the cheeks," a comic gesture, of echoic origin. Buffoonery is from 1620s.