Other forms: jesters
A jester is a comic entertainer at a royal court. The king's jester, a jester's cap, play the jester.
The licence is the interesting part: a jester could say what nobody else could, which made the post genuinely useful to a ruler who wanted to hear the truth. The bells and the cap are largely a later invention. The word comes from jest, which first meant a tale.
1nounjesterA comic entertainer at a royal court.
“The jester made the king laugh with his silly songs and tricks.”
jester is an entertainer.
Middle English gestour means a teller of tales, from geste, a story. Jest first meant a tale, then a joke.
Middle English
gestour
English, today
jester
From Middle English gestour; equivalent to jest + er.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA