folly

Wikipedia

English

Long Island's Big Duck (blt. 1930-1931), a well known example of an architectural folly (see duck).

Etymology

From Old French, fol (“foolish”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒli

Noun

folly (plural follies)

1. foolishness

   This is a war of folly.

2. thoughtless action resulting in tragic consequence

   The purchase of Alaska from Russia was termed Seward's folly.

3. a fanciful building built for purely ornamental reasons

   A luncheonette in the shape of a coffee cup is particularly conspicuous, as is intended of an architectural duck or folly.

Related terms

• fool
• foolery
• foolish

Translations

foolishness

Esperanto: malsaĝeco (eo) Finnish: mielettömyys (fi), hulluus (fi), typeryys (fi) French: folie (fr) German: Torheit (de) f. Hungarian: butaság (hu), ostobaság (hu)

Polish: głupota (pl) f. Portuguese: bobeira (pt) f. Scottish Gaelic: amaideachd (gd), amaideas (gd) m.

thoughtless action

Finnish: hullutus (fi), hölmöily (fi), hömpötys (fi) Hungarian: könnyelműség (hu)

Scottish Gaelic: amaideachd (gd) f.

fanciful building

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Bulgarian: безразсъдство, безумие