silly
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈsɪ.li/
rhymes: -ɪli
homophone: Silly
homophone: Scilly
Forms: form: sillier
form: silliest
form: sely
form: seely
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”).
Senses: examples: text: They were laughing at a silly joke.
text: silly grin
text: This is the silliest stuffe, that euer I heard.
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], line 209:
text: I remember, before the Dwarf left the Queen, he followed us one day into thoſe gardens, and my Nurſe having ſet me down, he and I being cloſe together, near ſome Dwarf Apple trees, I muſt need ſhew my Wit, by a ſilly Alluſion between him and the Trees, which happens to hold in their Language as it doth in ours.
ref: 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), pages 226–227:
text: Well sir, I have a silly walk and I'd like to obtain a Government grant to help me develop it.
ref: 1970, Graham Chapman et al., Monty Python's Flying Circus, I, 183:
glosses: Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance.
examples: text: He cannot achieve celebrity by covering himself with diamonds... or by giving a silly price for a hack.
ref: 1875 June 26, Saturday Review, 815/2
glosses: Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance.
Absurdly large.
qualifier: particularly prices
raw_tags: of numbers
examples: text: The sylyman lay and herde, / And hys wyf answerd.
ref: a. 1450, Seven Sages, line 1361
text: The King of Spaine is counted very ſtrong, and the Pope is counted very ſtrong, because they haue a ſtrong hand to perſecute the ſilly ones of leſus Chriſt.
ref: c. 1600, Robert Rollo[c]k, chapter I, in Lectvres Vpon The Epistle Of Pavl To The Colossians, London: Felix Kyngston, page 27:
glosses: Blessed
Good; pious.
examples: text: ... thrie Saturdayes befor Lambas and thrie efter called the six silie Saturdayes.
ref: 1650 in 1885, W. Cramond, Church of Rathven, 21
glosses: Blessed
Holy.
examples: text: The fire raging upon the silly Carcase.
ref: 1556 in 1880, William Henry Turner, Selections from the Records of the City of Oxford... 1509–83, 246
text: Silly... in the same sense as E. poor is often used, denoting a state which excites compassion.
ref: 1808, John Jamieson, An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language:
glosses: Pitiful, inspiring compassion, particularly
examples: text: There is no best in þe word, I wene... / That suffuris halfe so myche tene / As doth þe sylly wat.
ref: a. 1475, in 1925, Rossell Hope Robbins, Secular Lyrics of the 14th & 15th Centuries, 109
text: In the silly lambis skin He crap als far as he micht win.
ref: a. 1513, William Dunbar, Poems, section 247:
glosses: Pitiful, inspiring compassion
Innocent; suffering undeservedly, especially as an epithet of lambs and sheep.
examples: text: scared silly
text: Wherfore Christe must soo moche the more instantelye be sought vpon, that he may vouchsafe to defende vs sylly wretches.
ref: 1539, Juan Luis Vives, translated by Richard Morison, Introduction to Wysedome:
text: Ah Shepheard, pity my diſtreſſed plight, / (If as thou ſeem’ſt, thou art ſo meane a man) / And ſeeke not to inrich thy followers, / By lawleſſe rapine from a ſilly maide, […]
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:
text: There remained fresh Examples of their Barbarism against weak Sea-men, and silly Fisher-men.
ref: 1665, Hugo Grotius, translated by Thomas Manley, De Rebus Belgicis, section 938:
glosses: Pitiful, inspiring compassion
Helpless, defenseless.
examples: text: Ane sillie scheill vnder ane erdfast stane
ref: a. 1500, Aesop, translated by Robert Henryson, Two Mice:
text: […]A pettigree / Of threescore and two yeares a sillie time, / To make prescription for a kingdomes worth.
ref: c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], line 93:
text: It is naturally very poor, ‘silly’ land.
ref: 1907, Transactions of the Highland & Agricultural Society, 19, 172:
glosses: Pitiful, inspiring compassion
Insignificant, worthless, (chiefly Scotland) especially with regard to land quality.
examples: text: Here we see that a smal sillie Bird knoweth how to match with so great a Beast.
ref: 1567, John Maplet, A Greene Forest:
text: [Christ] leaueth neither Children nor kinsfolke behind him to vphold his sillie kingdome.
ref: 1587, Philippe de Mornay, translated by Philip Sidney et al., A Woorke Concerning the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion, xxxii, 596:
text: That'll never grow. It's ower silly.
ref: 1946, Scottish National Dictionary, published 1971, Vol. VIII, 234/3:
glosses: Pitiful, inspiring compassion
Weak, frail; flimsy (use concerning people and animals is now obsolete).
examples: text: To doe the thing we can / To please... / This silly sickly man.
ref: 1636, Alexander Montgomerie, The Cherrie & the Slae, line 1512:
text: Is there ony thing you would particularly fancy, as your health seems but silly?
ref: 1818, Heart of Mid-Lothian, Walter Scott, section V:
glosses: Pitiful, inspiring compassion
Sickly; feeble; infirm.
examples: text: Dauid had no more but a sylie slynge, and a few stones.
ref: 1570, John Foxe, Actes & Monumentes, Vol. II, 926/1:
qualifier: now rustic UK
glosses: Simple, plain
Rustic, homely.
examples: text: The silly herdman all astonnied standes.
ref: a. 1547, the Earl of Surrey translating Publius Virgilius Maro, Certain Bokes of Virgiles Aeneis, Book II
text: So luvaris lair no leid suld lak,
A lord to lufe a silly lass.
ref: 1568, Alexander Scott, Poems, section 27:
qualifier: now rustic UK
glosses: Simple, plain
Lowly, of humble station.
examples: text: From Hell (of which the silly people of the Country think the top of this hill to be the mouth).
ref: 1687, Jean de Thévenot, translated by Archibald Lovell, The Travels of Monsieur de Thevenot into the Levant, i, 2:
glosses: Mentally simple, foolish
Rustic, uneducated, unlearned.
examples: text: silly mistake
text: Wee sillie soules, take the matter too too heauily.
ref: 1576, Abraham Fleming translating Sulpicius, A Panoplie of Epistles, 24
text: ‘Heaven help this silly fellow,’ murmured the perplexed locksmith.
ref: 1841, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge, iii, 252:
text: Steve, don't be silly. I mean social intercourse.
ref: 1972, George Lucas et al., American Graffiti, section 8:
text: The truth is that everyone is sillier than you could possibly imagine they'd be.
ref: 1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 3:
glosses: Mentally simple, foolish
Thoughtless, lacking judgment.
examples: text: Fow ȝellow ȝellow wes hir heid bot scho of lufe wes sillie.
ref: 1568, Christis Kirk on Grene:
text: Davie's no just like other folk... but he's no sae silly as folk tak him for.
ref: 1814, Waverley, Walter Scott, III, xvi, 237:
glosses: Mentally simple, foolish
Mentally retarded.
examples: text: You say you were knocked silly—was that so?
ref: 1829 January 17, Lancaster Gazette
text: Drinking myself silly...
ref: 1907, John Millington Synge, Playboy of the Western World, iii, 64:
text: Well, Judy, now that you've scared me silly, what's so important?
ref: 1942, J. Chodorov et al., Junior Miss, ii, i, 113:
text: I can kick this stuff any time I like. I tell you what. Get this week over, we'll go to a health farm for ten days. No drugs. No drink. And shag ourselves silly. How about that?
ref: 1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 2:
glosses: Mentally simple, foolish
Stupefied, senseless; stunned or dazed.
examples: text: Carpenter now placed himself at silly-point for Grundy, who was playing very forward.
ref: 1862 July 4, Notts. Guardian
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Very close to the batsman, facing the bowler; closer than short.
raw_tags: of a fielding position
Synonyms: sense: playful
word: charming
word: Also see Thesaurus:foolish
Derived terms: play silly beggars
play silly buggers
sillily
silliness
silly bean
silly billy
sillycide
silly goose
silly-how
silly me
silly mid off
silly mid on
silly money
silly o'clock
silly pill
silly point
silly putty
silly sausage
silly season
silly straw
silly string
silly window syndrome
strike me silly