Who doesn't enjoy a good laugh?

Any occasion will do! And when people laugh for no reason at all, in Russian we say it is a "fool's laugh ". Interestingly, this simple saying contains the roots of the word "clown". In Latin, the language of ancient Rome, the word "clonus" meant a "bumpkin". When the word first made it's way into the English language, it came to mean a "lout", a "blockhead" or a "dunce". In other languages and dialects the word acquired similar meanings. For instance, in Icelandic "clunni" means a clumsy guy with bad manners.

In Dutch, it means a tomboy; in one of the Swedish dialects "clunn" means a ‘log' or a ‘blockhead'. In Danish they call a "clunt" someone who is dumb, which is rather close to the "fool" from the Russian saying.