silly

Meanings

Adjective

• Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance.
• Blessed, particularly:
• Pitiful, inspiring compassion, particularly:
• Simple, plain, particularly:
• Mentally simple, foolish, particularly:
• Very close to the batsman, facing the bowler; closer than short.

Adverb

• Sillily: in a silly manner.

Noun

• A silly person.
• A term of address.
• A mistake.

Related

Similar words

• charming

Opposite words

• pious

Origin

• From Middle English seely, seli, from Old English sǣliġ, ġesǣliġ, from Proto-West Germanic *sālīg, from *sāli. Equivalent to seel + -y. Seelie.
• The semantic evolution is “blessed” → “innocent” → “naïve” → “foolish”. Compare the similar evolution of daft (originally meaning “accomodating”), and almost the reverse with nice (originally meaning “ignorant”).