giddy
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: agriculture
biology
business
lifestyle
medicine
natural-sciences
pathology
sciences
veterinary
zoology
Etymology: The adjective is derived from Middle English gidi, gedy, gydy (“demonically controlled or possessed; crazy, insane; foolish, idiotic, ridiculous, unwise; unsure; (rare) dizzy, shaky; (rare) of an animal: crazed, out of control; a fool”) [and other forms], from Old English gidiġ, gydiġ (“possessed by a demon or spirit, insane, mad”), from Proto-West Germanic *gudīg (“ghostly, spirited”, literally “possessed by a god or spirit”), from *god (“god”) + *-ig, *-g (suffix forming adjectives with the senses of being, doing, or having). The English word is analysable as god + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’, forming adjectives).
The noun and the verb are derived from the adjective.
Base: god
Affixes: -y
Inflected forms:
form: giddier
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: giddiest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: Feeling a sense of spinning in the head, causing a perception of unsteadiness and being about to fall down; dizzy.
pos: adj
tags: predicative
examples: The man became giddy upon standing up so fast.
[W]hilst I vvas thus muſing, and attentively looking upon the VVater, to try vvhether I could diſcover the Bottom, it happened to me, as it often does to thoſe that gaze too ſtedfaſtly on ſvvift Streams, that my Head began to grovv giddy, and my Leggs to ſtagger tovvards the River, into vvhich queſtionleſs I had fell, if Philaretus had not ſeaſonably and obligingly prevented it.
I wish you wouldn't keep appearing and vanishing so suddenly: you make one quite giddy.
They see the roofs and argue about where the different churches are: Rathmines' blue dome, Adam and Eve's, saint Laurence O'Toole's. But it makes them giddy to look so they pull up their skirts …
Susan loved to drink wine, and I was not a drinker at all, so I'd just sit there and watch her drink glass after glass and get giddier and giddier.
gloss: Causing or likely to cause dizziness or a feeling of unsteadiness.
pos: adj
tags: attributive
examples: They climbed to a giddy height.
[A]s vve pact along, / Vpon the giddy footing of the hatches: / Me thought that Gloceſter ſtumbled, and in ſtumbling, / Stroke me that thought to ſtay him ouer board, / Into the tumbling billovves of the maine.
VVilt thou vpon the high and giddy maſſe, / Seale vp the ſhip-boies eies, and rocke his braines, […]
[A]ll those changes, that are taken for the Giddy turns of Fortune's Wheel, shall serve to approach him the faster to the blest Mansion he would arrive at.
Povv'r like nevv VVine, does your vveak Brain ſurpriſe, / And its mad fumes, in hot diſcourſes, riſe; / But time theſe giddy vapours vvill remove; / Mean vvhile I'll take the ſober joys of Love.
From infancy through childhood's giddy maze, / Frovvard at ſchool, and fretful in his plays, / The puny tyrant burns to ſubjugate / The free republic of the vvhip-gig ſtate.
[T]hey oscillate, with a giddy and sickening motion, from one absurdity to another, and expiate the follies of youth by the heartless vices of advancing age.
Low lies the plant to whose creation went / Sweet influence from every element; / Whose living towers the years conspired to build, / Whose giddy top the morning loved to gild.
gloss: Moving around something or spinning rapidly.
pos: adj
examples: To ſpoil Antiquities of hammerd ſteele, / And turn the giddy round of Fortunes vvheele.
So vvhirls a VVheel, in giddy Circle toſt, / And rapid as it runs, the ſingle Spokes are loſt.
There, vvhile above the giddy tempeſt flies, / And all around diſtreſsful yells ariſe, / The penſive exile, bending vvith his vvoe, / To ſtop too fearful, and too faint to go.
Amid his senses' giddy wheel, / Did he not desperate impulse feel, / Headlong to plunge himself below, / And meet the worst his fears foreshow?— […]
As 'twere a hundred-throated nightingale, / The strong tempestuous treble throbb'd and palpitated; / Ran into its giddiest whirl of sound, / Caught the sparkles, and in circles, / Purple gauzes, golden hazes, liquid mazes, / Flung the torrent rainbow round: […]
gloss: Unable to concentrate or think seriously; easily excited; impulsive; also, lightheartedly silly; frivolous.
pos: adj
tags: broadly
examples: The Biſhop, and the Duke of Gloſters men, / Forbidden late to carry any VVeapon, / Haue fill'd their Pockets full of peeble ſtones; / And banding themſelues in contrary parts, / Doe pelt ſo faſt at one anothers Pate, / That many haue their giddy braynes knockt out: […]
[I]n this ſtanding vvoodden cheſt, / Conſorted vvith theſe fevv bookes, let me lye / In priſon, and here be coffin'd, vvhen I dye; / […] / Here gathering Chroniclers, and by them ſtand / Giddie fantaſtique Poëts of each land.
[I]n briefe, ſince I doe purpoſe to marrie, I vvill think nothing to anie purpoſe that the vvorld can ſaie againſt it: and therfore neuer flout at me, for vvhat I haue ſaid againſt it: for man is a giddie thing, and this is my concluſion: […]
It may be Gnats, and Flies, haue their Imagination more mutable and giddy, as Small Birds likevviſe haue.
They ſhall recover the miſattended vvords of Chriſt to the ſincerity of their true ſenſe from manifold contradictions, and ſhall open them vvith the key of charity. […] [M]any they ſhall reclaime from obſcure and giddy ſects, many regain from diſſolute and brutiſh licence, many from deſperate hardnes, if ever that vvere juſtly pleaded.
Such practices as Theſe, too groſs to lye / Long unobſerv'd by each diſcerning Eye, / The more judicious Iſraelites Unſpell'd, / Though ſtill the Charm the giddy Rabble held, […]
The tumult in her mind ſeemed not yet abated; ſhe ſaid tvventy giddy things that looked like joy, and then laughed loud at her ovvn vvant of meaning.
Young heads are giddy, and young hearts are vvarm, / And make miſtakes for manhood to reform.
I can't bear her: she sets up to be natural and is only rude; mistakes insolence for innocence; says everything which comes first to her lips and thinks she is gay when she is only giddy.
[…] Luard began to perform some trick with an ebony pen-holder of Philip's. "Don't play the giddy ox," said Philip. "You'll only break it."
gloss: Unable to concentrate or think seriously; easily excited; impulsive; also, lightheartedly silly; frivolous.
pos: adj
tags: broadly
dated
examples: 'E isn't one o' the reg'lar Line, nor 'e isn't one of the crew. / 'E's a kind of a giddy harumfrodite—soldier an' sailor too!
I found him pokin' about the place on his own hook afterwards, an' I thought I'd show him the giddy drill. When I found he was so pleased, I wasn't goin' to damp his giddy ardour. He mightn't ha' given me the quid if I had.
A giddy lot Scudder's friends cared for peace and reform.
gloss: Joyfully elated; overcome with excitement or happiness.
pos: adj
tags: broadly
examples: The boy was giddy when he opened his birthday presents.
I come by note to giue, and to receiue; / Like one of tvvo contending in a prize, / That thinks he hath done vvell in peoples eyes; / Hearing applauſe and vniuerſall ſhout, / Giddy in ſpirit, ſtill gazing in a doubt, / VVhether thoſe pearles^([sic – meaning peals]) of praiſe be his or no.
But I vvonder, that either theſe good men, or my mamma ſhou'd think, becauſe they may find it pleaſant vvho are come to maturity of judgment, that ſuch as vve vvho are in the gayeſt and giddyeſt part of life ſhou'd.
"I don't know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings. "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world. Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!"
[…] Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophizes all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.
gloss: Feeling great anger; furious, raging.
pos: adj
tags: UK
broadly
dialectal
gloss: Of an animal, chiefly a sheep: affected by gid (“a disease caused by parasitic infestation of the brain by tapeworm larvae”), which may result in the animal turning around aimlessly.
pos: adj
tags: UK
dialectal
gloss: Of a thing, especially a ship: unsteady, as if dizzy.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
obsolete
examples: The giddy Ship ran round; the Tempeſt tore / Her Maſt, and over-board the Rudder bore.
VVide o'er the vvaſte the rage of Boreas ſvveeps, / And Night ruſh'd headlong on the ſhaded deeps. / Novv here, novv there, the giddy ſhips are born, / And all the rattling ſhrouds in fragments torn.
Derived words: act the giddy goat
giddify
giddily
giddiness
giddisome
giddy as a windmill
giddy-brained
giddy-go-round
giddy-headed
giddyish
giddy limit
giddysome
hitch in one's giddy-up
my giddy aunt
play the giddy goat
play the giddy ox
ungiddy
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: лекомислен
roman: lekomislen
lang: Bulgarian
word: вятърничав
roman: vjatǎrničav
lang: Dutch
word: lichtzinnig
lang: Finnish
word: ailahtelevainen
lang: French
word: étourdi
lang: Georgian
word: დაუფიქრებელი
roman: daupikrebeli
lang: Georgian
word: ფუქსავატი
roman: puksavaṭi
lang: German
word: leichtfertig
lang: German
word: flatterhaft
lang: German
word: leicht abzulenkend
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: lettsindig
lang: Spanish
word: frívolo
lang: Spanish
word: veleidoso
lang: Bulgarian
word: лекомислен
roman: lekomislen
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 輕 /轻
roman: qīng
lang: Dutch
word: onbezonnen
lang: Finnish
word: iloinen
lang: Georgian
word: არასერიოზული
roman: araseriozuli
lang: Georgian
word: სულელური
roman: suleluri
lang: German
word: aufgedreht
lang: German
word: ausgelassen
lang: German
word: freudig erregt
lang: German
word: lebhaft
lang: German
word: munter
lang: German
word: vergnügt
lang: Hungarian
word: kerge
lang: Irish
word: aerach
lang: Irish
word: aertha
lang: Irish
word: alluaiceach
lang: Irish
word: baoth
lang: Mongolian
word: хөнгөн
roman: xöngön
lang: Mongolian
word: ᠬᠥᠩᠭᠡᠨ
roman: könggen
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: eu-cèillidh
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: faoin
lang: Spanish
word: frívolo
lang: Swedish
word: förnöjd
lang: Swedish
word: lycklig
lang: Swedish
word: själaglad
lang: Turkish
word: sersem
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: سرسم
roman: sersem