addled

Meaning

Verb

simple past and past participle of addle

Adj

1. Bad, rotten; inviable, containing a dead embryo.
2. (figuratively) Confused; mixed up.
3. (obsolete) Morbid, corrupt, putrid, or barren.

addle

• Adj
• Noun
• Verb
• Noun
• Verb

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Synonyms

stupid

foolish

befuddled

rotten

bad

👎

woolly

silly

muzzy

muddled

sheepish

confused

😕

woolly-headed

wooly

dull

wooly-minded

leak

mixed

pell-mell

perplexed

putrescence

putrid

putridness

rottenness

semiconscious

spoiled

stunned

tangled

topsy-turvy

airheaded

dull-minded

asinine

shit-for-brains

brainless

busy

carious

complicated

confusing

disorganised

disorganized

dumb

fatuous

fuzzy

groggy

idiotic

inane

incoherent

Translations

blennus

beneit

bardus

stultus

stupido

idiot

ignorante

estult

sciocco

dumm

albern

nici

toix

stupide

neci

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈæ.dəld/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: addledd

Cognate with Middle Low German: adel

Cognate with Dutch: aal

Cognate with Latin: ovum urinum

Cognate with Ancient Greek: οὔριον ᾠόν

In summary

From Middle English addledd, adyld, equivalent to addle (“urine, liquid filth”) + -ed. Addle derives from Old English adel, adela (“mud, mire, liquid manure”), cognate with Old Swedish adel (“urine”), Middle Low German adel, Dutch aal (“manure”). Used in noun phrase addle egg (mid-13c.) “egg that does not hatch, rotten egg”, lit. “urine egg”, a calque of Latin ovum urinum, which is itself an erroneous calque of Ancient Greek οὔριον ᾠόν (oúrion ōión, “putrid egg”, literally “wind egg”), from οὔριος (oúrios, “of the wind”), from οὖρος (oûros, “fair wind”) (confused by Roman writers with οὔριος (oúrios, “of urine”), from οὖρον (oûron, “urine”)). Because of this usage, the noun in English was taken as an adjective from c. 1600, meaning “putrid”.