silly

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

Phonetic variant of seely. From Old English *sǣliġ, "blessed", (attested only in form ġesǣliġ), from Proto-Germanic *sēlīgaz. Cognate with West Frisian sillich, Dutch zalig, German selig. More at sely.

Pronunciation

• X-SAMPA: /"sIli/
• IPA: /ˈsɪli/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪli
• Homophones: Scilly

Adjective

silly (comparative sillier, superlative silliest)

1. (archaic) Pitiable; deserving of compassion; helpless.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.vi:

     A silly man, in simple weedes forworne, / And soild with dust of the long dried way; / His sandales were with toilesome trauell torne, / And face all tand with scorching sunny ray […]

   • Sepenser

     After long storms […] with which my silly bark was tossed sore.

   • Coleridge

     The silly buckets on the deck.

2. (obsolete) Simple, unsophisticated, ordinary; rustic, ignorant.
   • 1633, John Donne, "Sapho to Philænis":

     For, if we justly call each silly man / A little island, What shall we call thee than?

   • Shakespeare

     A fourth man, in a silly habit.

   • Milton

     All that did their silly thoughts so busy keep.

3. foolish, showing a lack of good sense and wisdom; frivolous, trifling.

   I made a very silly mistake.

   The newlyweds called each other silly little nicknames.

4. irresponsible, showing irresponsible behaviors.

   What a silly kid, he's always getting in trouble.

5. semiconscious, witless.

   The impact of the ball knocked him silly.

6. (cricket) of a fielding position, very close to the batsman; closer than short
7. (pejorative) simple, not intelligent, unrefined.

   John was prosperous and his helpless, silly father could be of no use to him.

8. (obsolete) Happy; fortunate; blessed.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)

9. (obsolete) Harmless; innocent; inoffensive.
   • Spenser

     The silly virgin strove him to withstand.

   • Robynson (More's Utopia)

     A silly, innocent hare murdered of a dog.

Derived terms

• sillily (adverb)
• silly season

Antonyms

• ("playful"): pious

Synonyms

• ("playful"): charming

Translations

foolish, showing a lack of good sense and wisdom

• Afrikaans: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: سخيف (ar) (sakhiif)
• Armenian: հիմար (hy) (himar), տխմար (hy) (txmar)
• Azeri: please add this translation if you can
• Bashkir: please add this translation if you can
• Basque: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: please add this translation if you can
• Bengali: please add this translation if you can
• Breton: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: ximple (ca), ximplet (ca), fava (ca)
• Cherokee: please add this translation if you can
• Chichewa: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 愚蠢 (cmn) (yúchǔn), 笨 (cmn) (bèn), 傻 (cmn) (shǎ), 糊塗 (cmn), 糊涂 (cmn) (hútu), 無聊 (cmn), 无聊 (cmn) (wúliáo), 憨痴 (cmn) (hānchī)

• Czech: hloupý (cs)
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: ondoordacht (nl)
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Ewe: please add this translation if you can
• Extremaduran: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: typerä (fi), hölmö (fi)
• French: idiot (fr) m, bête (fr), fou (fr) m, stupide (fr)
• Friulian: please add this translation if you can

• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: doof (de)
• Greek: ανόητος (el) (anóitos)
• Hausa: please add this translation if you can
• Hawaiian: kohu ʻole
• Hebrew: מטופש (he) (metupásh) m, טיפשי (he) (tipshí) m
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
• Ido: stulta (io)
• Igbo: please add this translation if you can
• Interlingua: fatue (ia)
• Interlingue: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: sciocco (it) m
• Japanese: 馬鹿げた (ja) (bakageta), 他愛ない (ja) (tawainai), 馬鹿 (ja) (ばか, baka)
• Kannada: please add this translation if you can
• Khmer: ដែលភ្លីភ្លើ (km) (dael plii-pləə)
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: stultus (la)
• Latvian: muļķīgs (lv), dumjš (lv)
• Malayalam: please add this translation if you can
• Marathi: please add this translation if you can
• Mirandese: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: głupi (pl) m
• Portuguese: bobo (pt), tolo (pt), ingénuo (pt)
• Russian: глупый (ru) (glúpyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: amaideach (gd), faoin (gd)
• Spanish: niñito (es)

irresponsible, showing irresponsible behaviors

• Dutch: dom (nl)
• Finnish: hölmö, ajattelematon, vastuuton, typerä (fi)
• French: idiot (fr), fou (fr) m, givré (fr) m (slang), branque (fr) (slang), jeté (fr) m (slang)
• Japanese: 馬鹿 (ja) (baka), 阿呆 (ja) (aho)

• Norwegian: tullete (no), fjollete (no)
• Portuguese: irresponsável (pt), infantil (pt), bobo (pt)
• Scottish Gaelic: faoin (gd)
• Spanish: infantil (es)

playful, giggly

• Dutch: ondeugend (nl), gek (nl)
• Finnish: hassu (fi)
• French: bébête (fr), idiot (fr), nunuche (fr) f
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: albern (de)
• Greek: σαχλός (el) (sachlós)
• Japanese: つまらない (ja) (tsumaranai)

• Portuguese: bobo (pt)
• Russian: глупышка (ru) (glúpyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: faoin (gd)
• Spanish: payaso (es)
• Swedish: lekfull, fnittrig (sv)
• Tamil: விளையாட்டுத்தனமான (ta)

semiconscious

• Finnish: sekava (fi)
• French: abruti (fr)

• Portuguese: semiconsciente (pt), aéreo (pt)
• Spanish: semiaturdido (es)

cricket: of a fielding position, very close to the batsman; closer than short

pejorative: simple, not intelligent, unrefined

• Dutch: dom (nl), stom (nl)
• Finnish: yksinkertainen (fi), hölmö (fi)
• French: idiot de (fr), imbécile de (fr)
• Italian: sciocco (it) m

• Japanese: 馬鹿 (ja) (baka), 阿呆 (ja) (aho), 愚鈍 (ja) (gudon)
• Portuguese: simples (pt)
• Scottish Gaelic: amaideach (gd)
• Spanish: tontito (es), simple (es)

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

• Esperanto: sensenca, stulteta

• Indonesian: tolol, dungu
• Spanish: necio, bobo, simple, absurdo, insensato, tonto

Noun

silly (plural sillies)

1. (colloquial) A silly person; a fool.
2. (colloquial) A mistake.

Anagrams

• silyl
• slily
• yills