daft

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dæft/; /dɑːft/ (UK)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dafte (“gentle; foolish”),^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English gedæfte (“mild, gentle, becoming”),^{[2][5][6][3][4]} from Proto-Germanic *gadaftijaz,^[6][5] from a root *dab- “fitting”, which has no certain Indo-European etymology.^[6] It is the same word as deft.^[5][6][4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mild, gentle, meek (about 1000).^[7][5][6]

Semantic evolution

The meaning declined from “meek” to “dull, awkward” about 1300,^[6][5] perhaps because a meek person might be taken for a dull one, a development like that of silly.^[5][6] It came to mean foolish or stupid by the mid-15th century^[6][5][7] and crazy by 1536,^[7][6] probably influenced by daffe “halfwit”.^[5][6] The Scottish sense of madly merry is from about 1575.^[7][4]

Timeline

• about 1000 – meek, gentle.^[7][5]
• about 1300 – dull, awkward.^[5][6]
• about 1450 – stupid, foolish.^[7][5][6]
• 1536 – crazy, insane.^[7][6]
• about 1575 – giddily merry, in Scots.^[7]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Silly or foolish.
2. Mad or insane.
3. (Scottish) Merry and frolicsome.

Word family

• daftly
• daftness

Related words

• deft
• daffy
• silly

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press