silly
/ˈsɪl.i/ adjective, adverb, noun
Forms sillier silliest sillies sely seely
- adjective Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance. “They were laughing at a silly joke.”
- adjective (of numbers, particularly prices) Absurdly large.
- adjective Good; pious.
- adjective Holy.
- adjective (now chiefly Scotland and Northern England, rare) Pitiful, inspiring compassion, particularly:
- adjective (now literary) Innocent; suffering undeservedly, especially as an epithet of lambs and sheep.
- adjective (now literary) Helpless, defenseless. “scared silly”
- adjective Insignificant, worthless, (chiefly Scotland) especially with regard to land quality.
- adverb (now regional or colloquial) Sillily: in a silly manner.
- noun (colloquial) A silly person.
- noun (endearing, gently derogatory) A term of address.
- noun (colloquial) A mistake.
Synonyms
charming Also see Thesaurus:foolish cockamamie cockamamy goofy sappy wacky whacky zany airheaded dizzy empty-headed featherbrained giddy light-headed lightheaded pathetic ridiculous punch-drunk slaphappy
Antonyms
Etymology
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”).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Happy; fortunate; blessed. [Obs.] Chaucer.
- adjective Harmless; innocent; inoffensive. [Obs.] "This silly, innocent Custance." Chaucer.
Etymology [OE. seely, sely, AS. s, ges, happy, good, fr. s, s, good, happy, s good fortune, happines; akin to OS. salig, a, good, happy, D. zalig blessed, G. selig, OHG. salig, Icel. s, Sw. säll, Dan. salig, Goth. s good, kind, and perh. also to L. sollus whole, entire, Gr. sarva. Cf. Seel, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “silly”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details