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Webster 1913 Edition

(mĕr′ry̆-ăn′drṳ)

Noun.

One whose business is to make sport for others; a buffoon; a zany; especially, one who attends a mountebank or quack doctor.

☞ This term is said to have originated from one

Andrew Borde

, an English physician of the 16th century, who gained patients by facetious speeches to the multitude.

Noun.

A buffoon; a zany; one whose business is to make sport for others.

See also: merryandrew and Merry Andrew

merry-andrew ‎(plural merry-andrews)