광대

Etymology
The History is written based on earlier sources and the word is cited in relation to an early 14th-century figure, so the word was probably used at that time.



The hanja form, sometimes still used, is unetymological.

The original sense, attested in Hunmong jahoe and implied in History, appears to have been "mask"; already by the fourteenth century, it had transferred to "performers wearing masks".

Noun

 * 1) clown, acrobat, entertainer, performer
 * 2)  mask in traditional plays