The origins of ‘fool’
Wednesday is April 1, when people in many countries worldwide celebrate the custom ( ) of “April Fool’s Day.” On this day, they play pranks ( ) on each other, the pranksters gleefully ( ) calling those hapless ( ) enough to fall for ( ) the joke an “April Fool.”
Nobody really knows for certain ( ) when, where or why the custom started. We have more certainty over the origins of the word “fool” itself, although some details remain unclear.
The word, which refers to ( ) a silly, stupid, or ignorant ( ) person, is thought to originate ( ) in the early 13th century, deriving ( ) from Old French fol, meaning a madman or insane person. The French word, in turn, comes from the Latin follis, meaning a leather bag or a bellows ( ) and, by extension later on, an empty-headed ( ) person.
Fool also referred to a rogue ( ) or a sinful ( ), wicked ( ) or lecherous ( ) person — around 1300, a “fool woman” meant a prostitute ( ), for example — and also a court ( ) jester ( ), a person whose purpose was to entertain ( ) the king and court, whether because they were pretending to be buffoonish ( ) or whether they actually were like that.
One theory is that the idea of the court jester “fool” derives from folles — the plural form of follis (bellows) — referring to the puffed cheeks of a buffoon.
It is unclear which sense came first, that of the idiot or the jester.
「愚人」的起源
下週三是四月一日，許多國家的人在這天都有過「愚人節」的慣例，互相捉弄，惡作劇的人樂不可支地把那些不幸被騙倒的人稱作「April Fool」（四月的愚人）。
沒有人能確知愚人節這習俗到底是在何時、何地或為何開始的，但我們對「fool」（傻瓜）一字的由來比較能夠掌握多，儘管有些細節仍不甚明瞭。
「fool」這個字，現今指的是傻氣、愚笨或無知的人，通常被認為是源自十三世紀初期的古法語字「fol」，意指瘋子或精神失常的人。而這個字又是源於拉丁文「follis」，意為皮製的袋子或風箱，後來引伸為腦袋空空的人。
「fool」亦指惡棍或有罪、惡毒或淫蕩的人──例如在西元一三○○年左右，「fool woman」指的是妓女，亦指弄臣，也就是在宮廷中負責娛樂國王和朝臣的人，無論這些弄臣是故意裝瘋賣傻，還是本來就如小丑般滑稽。
有一說則是認為，「fool」字的「弄臣」之意，是源於「folles」──即「follis」（風箱的拉丁文複數形）──指的是小丑鼓脹的臉頰。
「fool」一字是先有「傻子」之意，還是先有「弄臣」之意，我們並不清楚。
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