addled

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From Middle English addledd, adyld, equivalent to addle (urine, liquid filth) +‎ -ed. Addle derives from Old English adel, adela (mud, mire, liquid manure), cognate with Old Swedish adel (urine), Middle Low German adel, Dutch aal (manure). Used in noun phrase addle egg (mid-13c.) “egg that does not hatch, rotten egg”, lit. “urine egg”, a loan translation of Latin ovum urinum, which is itself an erroneous loan translation of Ancient Greek οὔριον ᾠόν (oúrion ōión, putrid egg), lit. “wind egg”, from οὔριος (oúrios, of the wind), from οὖρος (oûros, fair wind) (confused by Roman writers with οὔριος (oúrios, of urine), from οὖρον (oûron, urine)). Because of this usage, the noun in English was taken as an adj. from c. 1600, meaning “putrid”.

Pronunciation

[edit]

Verb

[edit]

addled

  1. simple past and past participle of addle

Adjective

[edit]

addled (comparative more addled, superlative most addled)

  1. (of eggs) Bad, rotten; inviable, containing a dead embryo.
  2. Confused; mixed up.
  3. (obsolete) Morbid, corrupt, putrid, or barren. [1]

Derived terms

[edit]

Translations

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Webster’s Dictionary 1828 edition”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)[1], 2011 April 4 (last accessed), archived from the original on 11 April 2011

Anagrams

[edit]