crackbrained
adjective
Forms crack-brained crack brained
- adjective Idiotic.
Synonyms
birdbrained addlebrained addlepated airheaded bee-brained beef-witted soft beefheaded beetle-headed blockheaded Boeotian boneheaded boofheaded braindead brainless bubbleheaded buffle-headed bullet-headed cerebrally challenged childish idiotic
Etymology
From crack + brained. The word is centuries old, and the original imagery is of a brain that is cracked (broken), but the advent of crack cocaine produced a new surface analysis whereby the word now also suggests a crack(rock)-addled brain. But even with that difference in referents, cognation is involved regardless.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “crackbrained”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details