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Forms
silliersilliessilliestsilliness
Derived forms
nonsillysillificationsillilysillinesssilly-howsillycidalsillycidesillyficsillyheadsillyhoodsillyishsillyism
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”).
View etymology graph ->
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