folehardy

Middle English

FWOTD – 9 December 2017

Alternative forms

• fole-hardy, fole hardy, folehardye, fole-hardye, fole hardye, folehardi, fole-hardi, fole hardi, foolhardy, fool-hardy, fool hardy, foolhardi, fool-hardi, fool hardi, foole hardi, folherdi, fulhardy, ffoul hardy, foule hardy, fuyll hardy

Etymology

From Old French fol hardi (“foolishly bold”), from Old French fol (“foolish, silly; insane, mad”) (from Latin follis (“bellows; purse, sack; inflated ball; belly, paunch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell”)) + Old French hardi (“durable, hardy, tough”) (past tense of hardir (“to harden”), from the unattested Frankish *hardijan, from Proto-Germanic *harduz (“hard; brave”)). Equivalent to fole +‎ hardy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfoːlˌhardiː/

Adjective

folehardy

1. Marked by unthinking recklessness with disregard for danger; boldly rash; hotheaded, foolhardy.
   • 1330, Sir Orfeo:

     Y no fond neuer so folehardi man, Þat hider to ous durst wende.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Monkes Prologue”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC, folio lxxxix, verso, column 1:

     This is my lyfe, but yf that I wold fight / And out at dore, anon I mote me dight / And els I am loſt, but yf that I / Belyke a wylde lyon, fole hardy

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• English: foolhardy

References

• “fol-hardi, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 21 June 2018.