silly

Meaning

1. Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance.
2. Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance.
3. (obsolete) Blessed
4. (obsolete) Blessed
5. Pitiful, inspiring compassion
6. Pitiful, inspiring compassion
7. Pitiful, inspiring compassion
8. Pitiful, inspiring compassion
9. Pitiful, inspiring compassion
10. Pitiful, inspiring compassion, particularly
11. Simple, plain
12. (obsolete) Simple, plain
13. (obsolete) Mentally simple, foolish
14. Mentally simple, foolish
15. Mentally simple, foolish
16. Mentally simple, foolish
17. Very close to the batsman, facing the bowler; closer than short.

foolish

stupid

drive mad

foolish person

stupid person

mentally deficient

mentally deranged

turkey

become mad

make trouble

beef-witted

fat-witted

crack-brained

light-headedly

idle-headed

little silly

timber-headed

intellectually dull

unreasonable irrational

namby pamby

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈsɪli/

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” → “innocent” → “naïve” → “foolish”. Compare the similar evolution of daft (originally meaning “accommodating”), and almost the reverse with nice (originally meaning “ignorant”).

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