silly
English dictionary entry
Meanings
adj
- Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance.
- Absurdly large.
- Blessed
- Good; pious.
- Holy.
- Pitiful, inspiring compassion, particularly
- Pitiful, inspiring compassion
- Innocent; suffering undeservedly, especially as an epithet of lambs and sheep.
- Helpless, defenseless.
- Insignificant, worthless, (chiefly Scotland) especially with regard to land quality.
- Weak, frail; flimsy (use concerning people and animals is now obsolete).
- Sickly; feeble; infirm.
adv
- Sillily: in a silly manner.
noun
- A silly person.
- A term of address.
- A mistake.
Pronunciation
/ˈsɪl.i/
en-us-silly.ogg
en-au-silly.ogg
Word forms
silly
sillier
silliest
sely
seely
sillies
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”).
Translations
Afrikaans: onnosel
Afrikaans: verspot
Arabic: سَخِيف
Armenian: հիմար
Armenian: տխմար
Azerbaijani: sarsaq
Azerbaijani: səfeh
Azerbaijani: axmaq
Azerbaijani: qanmaz
Azerbaijani: ağılsız
Basque: ergel
Belarusian: дурны́
Belarusian: глу́пы
Belarusian: тупы́
Breton: sod
Bulgarian: глу́пав
Bulgarian: тъп
Bulgarian: детински
Bulgarian: нехаен
Bulgarian: игрив
Burmese: မိုက်မဲ
Burmese: န
Burmese: မိုက်
Burmese: တုံးတာ
Burmese: တုံး
Catalan: ximple
Catalan: ximplet
Catalan: fava
Catalan: babau
Chinese Mandarin: 愚蠢
Chinese Mandarin: 笨
Chinese Mandarin: 傻
Chinese Mandarin: 糊塗 /糊涂
Chinese Mandarin: 無聊 /无聊
Chinese Mandarin: 憨痴
Chinese Mandarin: ㄎㄧㄤ
Czech: hloupý
Czech: pošetilý
Czech: bláhový
Czech: pitomý
Czech: omráčený
Czech: praštěný
Danish: dum
Danish: fjollet
Danish: sølle
Dutch: ondoordacht
Dutch: dom
Dutch: ondeugend
Dutch: gek
Dutch: stom
Esperanto: malsaĝa
Esperanto: facilanima
Esperanto: fola
Estonian: tobe
Estonian: loll
Finnish: typerä
Finnish: hölmö
Finnish: ajattelematon
Finnish: vastuuton
Finnish: hassu
Finnish: sekava
Finnish: yksinkertainen
French: sot
French: insensé
French: idiot
French: bête
French: fou
French: stupide
French: givré
French: branque
French: jeté
French: bébête
French: nunuche
French: abruti
Galician: parvo
Galician: tonto
German: doof
German: dumm
German: albern
Greek: σαχλός
Greek: χαζός
Greek: ανόητος
Ancient Greek: ἄφρων
Ancient Greek: ἀβέλτερος
Hawaiian: kohu ʻole
Hebrew: מטופש
Hebrew: טיפשי
Hindi: मूर्ख
Hungarian: buta
Hungarian: csacsi
Hungarian: idétlen
Hungarian: együgyű
Ido: stulta
Indonesian: bodoh
Indonesian: konyol
Ingrian: humppa
Interlingua: fatue
Irish: aertha
Irish: gamalach
Italian: sciocco
Japanese: 馬鹿げた
Japanese: 他愛ない
Japanese: 馬鹿
Japanese: 阿呆
Japanese: つまらない
Japanese: 愚鈍
Khmer: ដែលភ្លីភ្លើ
Korean: 어리석다
Lao: ຈ້າ
Latin: stultus
Latin: fatuus
Latin: ineptus
Latin: excors
Latvian: muļķīgs
Latvian: dumjš
Low German: sellig
Macedonian: глупав
This entry uses open data from
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