dizzy

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dusi, also disi and dysy,^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English dysig (“foolish, stupid”),^[6][7][2][8] from Proto-West Germanic *dusīg (“stunned, dazed”).^[1] The OED calls it a common West Germanic adjective, formed with the suffix that became -y from a root Proto-West Germanic *dus-,^[6][9][10] and Etymonline traces it further to Proto-Germanic *dusijaz.^[7] It is cognate with Old Frisian dusig (“foolish”),^[6][3] Middle Dutch dosech,^[6][9] Low German dusig (“giddy”),^[6][11] Old High German tusig (“foolish, weak”)^[6][12] and Middle Low German dūsich (“stunned, dizzy”).^[3][13] The same root, with a long vowel, is in Dutch duizelen (“to be giddy”) and Dutch duizelig (“dizzy”),^[6][4][14] and Old English also had dyslic (“foolish”).^[6][7] Further back, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster connect it with Old English dwǣs (“stupid, foolish”) and furō (“to rage”),^[3][13] and Barnhart links it with doze;^[3] Etymonline suggests, with a "perhaps", Proto-Indo-European *dʰew- (“dust, vapour, smoke”).^[7] Ayto notes that no etymological link with doze or tizzy has been shown, despite the likeness of form and sense.^[14] The verb is inherited from Old English dysigan (“to act or talk foolishly”),^[6][11][7] but its modern transitive sense was formed again from the adjective.^[6][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Foolish, stupid: Old English dysig, recorded before 830,^[3] and found in the Vespasian Hymns and the Vespasian Psalter glosses.^[6] It was used of the foolish virgins in early translations of Matthew 25.^[7][15]

Semantic evolution

The old sense "foolish" fell out of general use in the 13th century and survived only in dialect.^[6][14][7] The sense "giddy, having a whirling feeling in the head" is first recorded about 1340, in Richard Rolle's Pricke of Conscience;^[6] Etymonline dates it to about 1400.^[7] From about 1500 the word also meant giddy or thoughtless, a sense Etymonline sees as a merger of the two older ones,^[7] and the verb "to make dizzy" appears in Gavin Douglas's Palice of Honour (written about 1501, printed 1579).^[6][13] Shakespeare used the adjective of a height that makes one giddy in King Lear (1608), and the verb for "bewilder" in Hamlet (1604).^[6] Johnson (1755) defined it as "giddy; vertiginous" and "causing giddiness".^[16] In the 1870s it began to be used of blondes, in the United States;^[7][17] Word Origins notes that the dizzy blonde of the 1870s became dumb in the 1930s.^[17] In slang it has meant "drunk" since 1791^[18] and "startling, astonishing" since 1896.^[6] In dialect it was also pronounced duzzy or dussy, from Northumberland to Cornwall,^[19] and in Shropshire it meant "dull of hearing".^[6]

Timeline

• before 830 – Old English dysig, foolish, stupid.^[3]
• c. 1150 – Middle English dusi.^[3]
• c. 1340 – giddy, with a whirling sensation in the head.^[6]
• c. 1500 – giddy, thoughtless.^[7]
• 1579 – verb, to make dizzy (Gavin Douglas, written about 1501).^[6][13]
• 1604 – verb, to bewilder (Shakespeare, Hamlet).^[6]
• 1608 – causing giddiness (Shakespeare, King Lear).^[6]
• 1791 – slang, drunk.^[18]
• 1870s – used of blondes.^[7][17]
• 1896 – slang, startling, astonishing.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having a whirling feeling in the head and a sense of losing one's balance; giddy: After the fairground ride she felt too dizzy to stand.^[12][13][6]
2. Mentally confused or bewildered.^[12][13]
3. Causing dizziness or bewilderment: a dizzy drop from the edge of the quarry.^[12][13][6]
4. (informal) foolish, silly or scatterbrained.^[12][13]

Verb

1. To make someone dizzy or giddy: The spinning lights dizzied the dancers.^[12][13][6]
2. To confuse or bewilder the mind.^[13][6]

Word family

• dizzily
• dizziness
• dizzyingly
• dizzying

Related words

• doze
• giddy

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
18. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
19. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)