daft
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: simple
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”). Related to Old English dafnian, dafenian (“to be fitting, appropriate, or becoming”), Russian до́брый (dóbryj, “good”). Doublet of deft.
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).
Inflected forms:
form: dafter
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: daftest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: Foolish, silly, stupid.
pos: adj
tags: Australia
Ireland
New-Zealand
UK
informal
examples: a daft idea
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.
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.
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.
You haven't exactly been playing the master tactician through all this, but that seems the daftest course you could possibly have taken.
gloss: Crazy, insane, mad.
pos: adj
tags: Australia
Ireland
New-Zealand
UK
informal
examples: "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.
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: […]
‘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.’
gloss: Gentle, meek, mild.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: 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'.
Related words: deft
Derived words: bedaft
daft as a brush
daften
daftie
dafty
daftish
daft laddie
daftlike
daftly
daftness
daftsome
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: неразумен
roman: nerazumen
lang: Cornish
word: gocki
lang: Czech
word: praštěný
lang: Czech
word: pitomý
lang: Danish
word: åndssvag
lang: Danish
word: latterlig
lang: Dutch
word: dwaas
lang: Dutch
word: idioot
lang: French
word: dingue
lang: French
word: branque
lang: German
word: albern
lang: Irish
word: amaideach
lang: Italian
word: balordo
lang: Italian
word: balzano
lang: Manx
word: meecheeallagh
lang: Māori
word: rūrūwai
lang: Portuguese
word: sandeu
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: faoin
lang: Spanish
word: tonto
lang: Swedish
word: fånig
lang: Swedish
word: löjlig
lang: Swedish
word: tramsig
lang: Welsh
word: ffôl
lang: Welsh
word: twp