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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MERRY-ANDREW

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

 

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

MERRY-ANDREW

MERRY-ANDREW Mer "ry-an "drew, n.

 

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

 

Note: 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.