silly

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Foolish or showing a lack of good sense, often in an amusing way.

   They were laughing at a silly joke.

2. 2
   adj

   Foolish enough to deserve pity or scorn.

   It was silly of him to spend all his money so quickly.

3. 3
   adj

   Dazed or confused, as if from repeated blows.

   He was knocked silly by the impact.

From Middle English seely, sēlī, from Old English sǣliġ, ġesǣliġ (“lucky, fortunate”), from Proto-West Germanic *sālīg, from *sāli; equivalent to seel (“happiness, bliss”) + -y. Doublet of Seelie. The semantic evolution is “lucky” to “innocent” to “naive” to “foolish”. Compare the similar evolution of daft (originally meaning “accommodating”), and almost the reverse with nice (originally meaning “ignorant”).

Topics