silly

Etymology
From, , from , , from , from. Equivalent to. .

The semantic evolution is “lucky” → “innocent” → “naïve” → “foolish”. Compare the similar evolution of (originally meaning “accommodating”), and almost the reverse with  (originally meaning “ignorant”).

Adjective

 * 1) Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance.
 * 2)  Absurdly large.
 * 3) * 1875 June 26, Saturday Review, 815/2:
 * He cannot achieve celebrity by covering himself with diamonds... or by giving a silly price for a hack.
 * 1)  Blessed, particularly:
 * 2) Good; pious.
 * , Seven Sages, line 1361:
 * The sylyman lay and herde, And hys wyf answerd.
 * 1) Holy.
 * 2) * 1650 in 1885, W. Cramond, Church of Rathven, 21:
 * ... thrie Saturdayes befor Lambas and thrie efter called the six silie Saturdayes.
 * 1)  Pitiful, inspiring compassion, particularly:
 * 2) * 1556 in 1880, William Henry Turner, Selections from the Records of the City of Oxford... 1509–83, 246:
 * The fire raging upon the silly Carcase.
 * 1)  Innocent; suffering undeservedly, especially as an epithet of lambs and sheep.
 * , in 1925, Rossell Hope Robbins, Secular Lyrics of the 14th & 15th Centuries, 109:
 * There is no best in þe word, I wene... That suffuris halfe so myche tene As doth þe sylly wat.
 * 1)  Helpless, defenseless.
 * scared silly
 * 1) Insignificant, worthless,  especially with regard to land quality.
 * 2) Weak, frail; flimsy.
 * 3) Sickly; feeble; infirm.
 * 4)  Simple, plain, particularly:
 * 5) Rustic, homely.
 * 6)  Lowly, of humble station.
 * , the Earl of Surrey translating Publius Virgilius Maro, Certain Bokes of Virgiles Aeneis, Book II:
 * The silly herdman all astonnied standes.
 * 1) Mentally simple, foolish, particularly:
 * 2)  Rustic, uneducated, unlearned.
 * 3) Thoughtless, lacking judgment.
 * 4) * 1576, Abraham Fleming translating Sulpicius, A Panoplie of Epistles, 24:
 * Wee sillie soules, take the matter too too heauily.
 * 1)  Mentally retarded.
 * 2) Stupefied, senseless; stunned or dazed.
 * 3) * 1829 January 17, Lancaster Gazette:
 * You say you were knocked silly—was that so?
 * 1)  Very close to the batsman, facing the bowler; closer than short.
 * 2) * 1862 July 4, Notts. Guardian:
 * Carpenter now placed himself at silly-point for Grundy, who was playing very forward.
 * 1)  Simple, plain, particularly:
 * 2) Rustic, homely.
 * 3)  Lowly, of humble station.
 * , the Earl of Surrey translating Publius Virgilius Maro, Certain Bokes of Virgiles Aeneis, Book II:
 * The silly herdman all astonnied standes.
 * 1) Mentally simple, foolish, particularly:
 * 2)  Rustic, uneducated, unlearned.
 * 3) Thoughtless, lacking judgment.
 * 4) * 1576, Abraham Fleming translating Sulpicius, A Panoplie of Epistles, 24:
 * Wee sillie soules, take the matter too too heauily.
 * 1)  Mentally retarded.
 * 2) Stupefied, senseless; stunned or dazed.
 * 3) * 1829 January 17, Lancaster Gazette:
 * You say you were knocked silly—was that so?
 * 1)  Very close to the batsman, facing the bowler; closer than short.
 * 2) * 1862 July 4, Notts. Guardian:
 * Carpenter now placed himself at silly-point for Grundy, who was playing very forward.
 * 1) Stupefied, senseless; stunned or dazed.
 * 2) * 1829 January 17, Lancaster Gazette:
 * You say you were knocked silly—was that so?
 * 1)  Very close to the batsman, facing the bowler; closer than short.
 * 2) * 1862 July 4, Notts. Guardian:
 * Carpenter now placed himself at silly-point for Grundy, who was playing very forward.
 * 1)  Very close to the batsman, facing the bowler; closer than short.
 * 2) * 1862 July 4, Notts. Guardian:
 * Carpenter now placed himself at silly-point for Grundy, who was playing very forward.
 * 1) * 1862 July 4, Notts. Guardian:
 * Carpenter now placed himself at silly-point for Grundy, who was playing very forward.

Usage notes
Silly is usually taken to imply a less serious degree of foolishness, mental impairment, or hilarity than its synonyms.

The sense meaning stupefied is usually restricted to times when silly is used as a verb complement, denoting that the action is done so severely or repetitively that it leaves one senseless.

Synonyms

 * charming
 * Also see Thesaurus:foolish

Antonyms

 * pious

Translations

 * Afrikaans:, verspot
 * Arabic: سَخِيف
 * Armenian: ,
 * Azerbaijani: sarsaq, səfeh,, qanmaz,
 * Bashkir:
 * Basque: ergel
 * Belarusian: дурны́, глу́пы, тупы́
 * Bengali:
 * Breton:
 * Bulgarian: ,
 * Burmese:, , , ,
 * Catalan:, , ,
 * Cherokee:
 * Chichewa:
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin:, , , , ,
 * Czech:, ,
 * Danish:
 * Dhivehi:
 * Dutch: ,
 * Esperanto:
 * Estonian: tobe,
 * Ewe:
 * Extremaduran:
 * Finnish: ,
 * French:, , , , ,
 * Friulian:
 * Galician:
 * Georgian:
 * German: ,
 * Greek:, ,
 * Ancient: ἄφρων, ἀβέλτερος
 * Hausa:
 * Hawaiian: kohu ʻole
 * Hebrew: מטופש, טיפשי
 * Hindi:
 * Hungarian: ,
 * Ido:
 * Igbo:
 * Indonesian: ,
 * Interlingua: fatue
 * Irish: aertha, gamalach
 * Italian:
 * Japanese: 馬鹿げた, ,
 * Kannada:
 * Khmer: ដែលភ្លីភ្លើ
 * Korean:
 * Lao: ຈ້າ
 * Latin:, fatuus, ineptus, excors
 * Latvian: muļķīgs, dumjš
 * Low German:
 * German Low German: sellig
 * Macedonian: глупав
 * Malayalam:
 * Manx: meecheeallagh
 * Maori: rūrūwai, wawau
 * Marathi: फालतू
 * Mirandese:
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål:
 * Old Church Slavonic:
 * Cyrillic: глоупъ
 * Ottoman Turkish: خفیف
 * Polish:
 * Portuguese:, ,
 * Romagnol: stòpid
 * Russian:, ,
 * Sanskrit:
 * Scottish Gaelic: amaideach, faoin
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Cyrillic: глу̑п, блесав
 * Roman: ,
 * Slovak:
 * Slovene:, butast, trapast, glúp
 * Spanish:, ,
 * Thai:
 * Turkish: ,
 * Ukrainian:, тупи́й
 * Vietnamese:


 * Czech: ,
 * Dutch:
 * Finnish:, , ,
 * French:, , ,  ,
 * Irish:
 * Japanese: ,
 * Latin: fatuus, ineptus
 * Maori: wawau
 * Norwegian: tullete, fjollete
 * Portuguese:, ,
 * Scottish Gaelic: faoin
 * Slovak:
 * Spanish:


 * Bulgarian:
 * Danish: fjollet
 * Dutch: ,
 * Finnish:
 * French:, ,
 * Georgian:
 * German:
 * Greek:
 * Hungarian:
 * Icelandic:
 * Japanese:
 * Portuguese:
 * Russian:
 * Scottish Gaelic: faoin
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish: ,
 * Tamil: விளையாட்டுத்தனமான


 * Czech: omráčený,
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * Portuguese: semiconsciente,
 * Spanish: semiaturdido


 * Danish:
 * Dutch: ,
 * Finnish: ,
 * French:, imbécile de
 * Galician: tonto
 * Hungarian:
 * Italian:
 * Japanese:, ,
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål:
 * Ottoman Turkish: بوك
 * Portuguese:
 * Scottish Gaelic: amaideach
 * Slovak:
 * Spanish: ,


 * Esperanto: ,
 * Indonesian: ,
 * Irish:
 * Spanish:, , , , ,

Adverb

 * 1)  Sillily: in a silly manner.

Noun

 * 1)  A silly person.
 * 2) * 1807 May, Scots Magazine, 366/1:
 * While they, poor sillies, bid good night, O' love an' bogles eerie.
 * 1)  A term of address.
 * 2) * 1918 September, St. Nicholas, 972/2:
 * ‘Come on, silly,’ said Nannie.
 * 1)  A mistake.

Translations

 * Bulgarian:
 * Danish: fjols,
 * German:
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål: dummenikk, dumming
 * Portuguese: ,
 * Turkish: