silly
- 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.
- Informal. a silly or foolish person: Don't be such a silly.
Origin of silly
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comAntonyms
Related Words
stupidity, absurdity, foolishness, craziness, goofiness, ineptitude, senselessness, inanity, puerilityExamples from the Web for silliness
Contemporary Examples
Yesterday, I wrote about the silliness of requiring a file clerk to have a college degree.
People are hurting, people died, and the time for silliness, debate, and procedural motions is over.
Never mind that Bill Clinton remains living proof of the silliness of modern puritanism.
I could provide chapter and verse as to the silliness of energy independence.
“I think the silliness is part of the phenomenon,” Sokoloff tells The Daily Beast.
Historical Examples
The silliness of a thing doesn't matter if it makes you laugh.
The Foolish LoversSt. John G. Ervine
Well, well, youth's the season for silliness, but there's bounds—there's bounds.
The Incomplete AmoristE. Nesbit
She's kind-hearted and that makes her put up with Rachel's silliness.
The PortygeeJoseph Crosby Lincoln
Used to call it silliness and a waste of time, I did—worse names than that, generally.
The PortygeeJoseph Crosby Lincoln
The silliness of the situation burned her sense of the incongruous.
MelomaniacsJames Huneker
silly
- lacking in good sense; absurd
- frivolous, trivial, or superficial
- feeble-minded
- dazed, as from a blow
- obsolete homely or humble
- (modifier) cricket (of a fielding position) near the batsman's wicketsilly mid-on
- Also called: silly-billy plural -lies informal a foolish person
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for silliness
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.