silly

[sil-ee]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR silly ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective, sil·li·er, sil·li·est.

weak-minded or lacking good sense; stupid or foolish: a silly writer.

absurd; ridiculous; irrational: a silly idea.

stunned; dazed: He knocked me silly.

Cricket. (of a fielder or the fielder's playing position) extremely close to the batsman's wicket: silly mid off.

Archaic. rustic; plain; homely.

Archaic. weak; helpless.

Obsolete. lowly in rank or state; humble.

noun, plural sil·lies.

Informal. a silly or foolish person: Don't be such a silly.

Origin of silly

1375–1425; earlier sylie, sillie foolish, feeble-minded, simple, pitiful; late Middle English syly, variant of sely seely

Related formssil·li·ly, adverbsil·li·ness, nounun·sil·ly, adjective

Synonyms for silly

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR silly ON THESAURUS.COM

1. witless, senseless, dull-witted, dim-witted. See foolish. 2. inane, asinine, nonsensical, preposterous.

Antonyms for silly

1. sensible.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for silliness

stupidity, absurdity, foolishness, craziness, goofiness, ineptitude, senselessness, inanity, puerility

Examples from the Web for silliness

Contemporary Examples of silliness

Yesterday, I wrote about the silliness of requiring a file clerk to have a college degree.
America’s New Mandarins
Megan McArdle
February 21, 2013
People are hurting, people died, and the time for silliness, debate, and procedural motions is over.
Jim McGreevey Says He’s Given Up Politics, Embraced a Simpler Life
Lloyd Grove
January 18, 2013
Never mind that Bill Clinton remains living proof of the silliness of modern puritanism.
Exclusive: Paula Broadwell’s Emails Revealed
Michael Daly
November 12, 2012
I could provide chapter and verse as to the silliness of energy independence.
Both Candidates Push Myth of Energy Independence
Robert Bryce
November 1, 2012
“I think the silliness is part of the phenomenon,” Sokoloff tells The Daily Beast.
‘Sherlock’ Star Benedict Cumberbatch’s Polarizing ‘Cumberbitches’
Kevin Fallon
October 25, 2012

Historical Examples of silliness

The silliness of a thing doesn't matter if it makes you laugh.
The Foolish Lovers
St. John G. Ervine
Well, well, youth's the season for silliness, but there's bounds—there's bounds.
The Incomplete Amorist
E. Nesbit
She's kind-hearted and that makes her put up with Rachel's silliness.
The Portygee
Joseph Crosby Lincoln
Used to call it silliness and a waste of time, I did—worse names than that, generally.
The Portygee
Joseph Crosby Lincoln
The silliness of the situation burned her sense of the incongruous.
Melomaniacs
James Huneker

British Dictionary definitions for silliness

silly

adjective -lier or -liest

lacking in good sense; absurd

frivolous, trivial, or superficial

feeble-minded

dazed, as from a blow

obsolete homely or humble

noun

(modifier) cricket (of a fielding position) near the batsman's wicketsilly mid-on

Also called: silly-billy plural -lies informal a foolish person

Derived Formssilliness, noun

Word Origin for silly

C15 (in the sense: pitiable, hence the later senses: foolish): from Old English sǣlig (unattested) happy, from sǣl happiness; related to Gothic sēls good

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for silliness

"foolishness," c.1600, from silly + -ness; a reformation of seeliness, from Old English saelignes "happiness, (good) fortune, occurrence."

silly

adj.

Old English gesælig "happy, fortuitous, prosperous" (related to sæl "happiness"), from Proto-Germanic *sæligas (cf. Old Norse sæll "happy," Old Saxon salig, Middle Dutch salich, Old High German salig, German selig "blessed, happy, blissful," Gothic sels "good, kindhearted"), from PIE *sele- "of good mood; to favor," from root *sel- (2) "happy, of good mood; to favor" (cf. Latin solari "to comfort," Greek hilaros "cheerful, gay, merry, joyous").

This is one of the few instances in which an original long e (ee) has become shortened to i. The same change occurs in breeches, and in the American pronunciation of been, with no change in spelling. [Century Dictionary]

The word's considerable sense development moved from "happy" to "blessed" to "pious," to "innocent" (c.1200), to "harmless," to "pitiable" (late 13c.), "weak" (c.1300), to "feeble in mind, lacking in reason, foolish" (1570s). Further tendency toward "stunned, dazed as by a blow" (1886) in knocked silly, etc. Silly season in journalism slang is from 1861 (August and September, when newspapers compensate for a lack of hard news by filling up with trivial stories). Silly Putty trademark claims use from July 1949.