daft
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɑːft/
enpr: dăft
ipa: /dæft/
rhymes: -ɑːft
rhymes: -æft
Forms: form: dafter
form: daftest
Etymology: From Middle English dafte, defte (“gentle; having good manners; humble, modest; awkward; dull; boorish”), from Old English dæfte (“accommodating; gentle, meek, mild”), from Proto-West Germanic *daftī (“fitting, suitable”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₂ebʰ- (“fitting; to fit together”). Related to Old English dafnian, dafenian (“to be fitting, appropriate, or becoming”), Russian до́брый (dóbryj, “good”).
Compare silly which originally meant “blessed; good, innocent; pitiful; weak”, but now means “laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance; mentally simple, foolish”.
Unrelated to, though perhaps influenced by, daff (“fool (n.); to be foolish (v.)”) (past form daffed).
Senses: examples: text: a daft idea
text: Thou art the daftest fuill that ever I saw. / Trows thou, man, be the law to get remeid / Of men of kirk? Na, nocht till thou be deid.
ref: 1602, David Lyndesay [i.e., David Lyndsay], Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits, in Commendation of Vertew and Vitvperation of Vyce (in Scots), Edinburgh: Printed be Robert Charteris, →OCLC; republished as Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits, in Commendation of Vertew and Vitvperation of Vyce (Early English Text Society, Original Series; no. 37), [London]: [Published for the Early English Text Society, by N[icholas] Trübner & Co.], [1869], →OCLC, page 451, lines 2008–2010:
english: You are the daftest fool that ever I saw. / Trust you, man, by the law to get a remedy / From men of the church? No, not till you are dead.
translation: You are the daftest fool that ever I saw. / Trust you, man, by the law to get a remedy / From men of the church? No, not till you are dead.
bold_translation_offsets: 12
19
text: So that if a boor complains of a broken-head, or a beer-seller of a broken can, or a daft wench does but squeak loud enough to be heard above her breath, a soldier of honour shall be dragged, not before his own court-martial, who can best judge of and punish his demerits, but before a base mechanical burgo-master, who shall menace him with the rasp-house, the cord, and what not, as if he were one of their own mean, amphibious, twenty-breeched boors.
ref: 1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter II, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume III (A Legend of Montrose), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, pages 188–189:
text: In case you haven't heard of them [the Taipings], I must tell you that they were another of those incredible phenomena that made China the topsy-turvey mess it was, like some fantastic land from Gulliver, where everything was upside down and out of kilter. Talk about moonbeams from cucumbers; the Taipings were even dafter than that.
ref: 1985, George MacDonald Fraser, chapter 1, in Flashman and the Dragon: From the Flashman Papers, 1860, London: Collins Harvill, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Plume, 1987, →ISBN:
text: You haven't exactly been playing the master tactician through all this, but that seems the daftest course you could possibly have taken.
ref: 1990, Iain Pears, The Raphael Affair, London: Gollancz, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Harper, 2014, →ISBN, page 22:
synonyms: word: asinine
word: balmy
word: barmy
word: bedaft
word: loony
word: daft
word: derpy
word: dim-headed
word: dim-witted
word: dopey
word: dull-headed
word: dull-witted
word: dumb
word: duncical
word: fatuous
word: fuzzy-headed
word: fuzzy-minded
word: gauvison
word: goofy
word: idiotic
word: idle
word: insipient
word: mookish
word: naive
word: silly
word: simple
word: slight
word: slow-witted
word: softheaded
word: soft in the head
word: sottish
word: stupid
word: thick
raw_tags: not of action
word: unsage
word: unwise
word: wool-headed
word: woolly-headed
word: woolly-minded
word: crackpot
word: dense
glosses: Foolish, silly, stupid.
examples: text: "Ow, he is just a wood harum-scarum creature, that wad never take to his studies;—daft, sir, clean daft." / […] / "[W]owff—a wee bit by the East-Nook or sae; it's a common case—the ae half of the warld thinks t'other daft. I have met with folks in my day, that thought I was daft mysell;[…]" / "I cannot make out a word of his cursed brogue," said the Cumbrian justice; "can you, neighbour—eh? What can he mean by deft?" / "He means mad", said the party appealed to, thrown off his guard by impatience of this protracted discussion.
ref: 1824 June, [Walter Scott], “Darsie Latimer’s Journal, in Continuation. Sheet 2.”, in Redgauntlet, […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, pages 143–144:
text: The boy gathered himself up, shook his shaggy head, and, said, in a piteous tone: 'Davie's daft!' 'Davie's daft!' He then kicked the poor idiot till his cries attracted the attention of the guests, some of whom immediately came to the spot: […]
ref: 1843 April, “The Vale of Glencoe: A Tale of Scotland”, in The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, volume XXI, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Published by John Allen, […], →OCLC, page 339:
text: ‘It’s a lee [lie],’ says the man; ‘she’s either drunk or daft.’ / ‘Me drunk, you ill-tongued vagabond!’ says my Auntie Kirsty, who couldna bear such a reproach on her good name, ‘I’m a’ but blackfasting this day from either meat or drink; you had better no meddle wi’ my character.’
ref: 1876, S[arah] R. Whitehead, “On the Wrong Coach”, in Daft Davie and Other Sketches of Scottish Life and Character, London: Hodder and Stoughton, […], →OCLC, page 220:
synonyms: word: 5150
word: bananas
word: barking
word: barking mad
word: buggish
word: buggy
word: bughouse
word: barmy
word: batchy
word: batpoop
word: bats
word: batty
word: bonkers
word: bread baskets
word: cracked
word: crackers
word: cra-cra
word: cray
word: cray-cray
word: crazed
word: crazy
word: crazy as a bedbug
word: crazy as a cootie
word: crazy as a cootie bug
word: crazy as a pet coon
word: cuckoo
word: daffy
word: daft
word: demented
word: deranged
word: distraught
word: disturbed
word: doolally
word: dotty
word: eccentric
word: fruit loops
word: gaga
word: hatstand
word: harebrained
word: insane
word: kooky
word: loon
word: loco
word: loony
word: loony tunes
word: loopy
word: lunatic
word: mad
word: mental
word: mentally ill
word: meshigener
word: meshugge
word: moonsick
word: non compos mentis
word: nonsane
word: nucking futs
word: nut job
word: nutballs
word: nut
word: nuts
word: nutso
word: nutty
word: nutter
word: off the beam
word: off the chain
word: over the edge
word: potty
word: psycho
word: psychoceramic
word: psychotic
word: sicko
word: screwy
word: squirrelly
word: starkers
word: tonto
word: unbalanced
word: unsane
word: wackadoodle
word: weird
word: whackjob
word: whacko
word: whacky
word: wode
word: yampy
word: zany
word: apeshit
word: batcrap
word: batshit
word: bat-shit
word: fucked in the head
word: fucked up
word: ripshit
glosses: Crazy, insane, mad.
examples: text: There's mirth in the barn and the ha', the ha', / There's mirth in the barn and the ha': / There's quaffing and laughing, / And dancing and daffing; / And our young bride's daftest of a', of a', / And our young bride's daftest of a'.
ref: 1825, “Who’s at My Window”, in Allan Cunningham, compiler, The Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern; […] In Four Volumes, volume III, London: Printed for John Taylor, […], →OCLC, page 334:
glosses: Gentle, meek, mild.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from daft
word: bedaft
sense: Terms derived from daft
word: daft as a brush
sense: Terms derived from daft
word: daften
sense: Terms derived from daft
word: daftie
sense: Terms derived from daft
word: dafty
sense: Terms derived from daft
word: daftish
sense: Terms derived from daft
word: daft laddie
sense: Terms derived from daft
word: daftlike
sense: Terms derived from daft
word: daftly
sense: Terms derived from daft
word: daftness
sense: Terms derived from daft
word: daftsome
Related terms: deft