Meaning

noun a travelling company of entertainers; including trained animals

noun a performance given by a traveling company of acrobats, clowns, and trained animals

noun a frenetic disorganized (and often comic) disturbance suggestive of a large public entertainment

originFrom Middle English circus, circo, from Latin circus (“ring, circle”), from Ancient Greek κρίκος (kríkos), κίρκος (kírkos, “ring”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to bend, turn”). Doublet of cirque. Cognate with Old English hring (whence English ring) and Old English hringsetl (“circus”, literally “ring-seat”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0