foggy

Etymology

It is apparently formed from English fog + -y,^[2][3][4][5] although the noun fog in the sense of mist is first recorded later than the adjective.^[2] Etymonline considers foggy perhaps from a Scandinavian source instead,^[6] and takes the noun as perhaps a back-formation from it.^[6] The Shorter Oxford derives the senses of coarse grass certainly, and the misty senses perhaps, from fog in the sense of long grass;^[7] the OED compares the fat senses with fat, which is used both of mist and of bulk, and thinks that the senses relating to land grew out of them under the influence of the grass word.^[2] The Oxford Dictionary of English also calls the derivation from the grass word possible.^[8] Merriam-Webster enters the grass senses and the mist senses separately, both from fog and -y.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the nature of fog, or affected by it, and earliest in figurative use: about 1487, in Skelton's translation of Diodorus Siculus.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense "full of thick mist" to the 1540s,^[6] and Dictionary.com dates the word 1520–30, originally meaning marshy, thick or murky.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From before 1529, in Skelton's Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng, the word also meant unhealthily fat, flabby or bloated,^[2][9] a sense now archaic or dialectal;^[2][7] Palsgrave's dictionary of 1530 glosses it as too full of waste flesh.^[10] In the 17th century it was used of food that fattened without nourishing and of thick, cloudy ale.^[2][7] Meanwhile the misty sense spread to smoke and murky air (1584).^[2] From before 1591 it was applied to thinking that lacked clarity.^[2] In the 19th century it was used of dim memories (1841, in Dickens), of minds muddled by tiredness or illness (1853), of clouded eyes (1847) and of cloudy photographs (1854).^[2] As slang it meant slightly drunk, from 1816,^[2][9] and in Northumberland, Shropshire and Suffolk dialect foggy meant muddled or half-tipsy.^[10] In Yorkshire and the north it meant fat or corpulent.^[10] The phrase not have the foggiest (idea) means not to have the slightest idea.^[7][3] Foggy Bottom, a marshy district of Washington, in print by that name since at least 1854,^[11] became a nickname for the State Department of the United States, which moved there in 1947,^[11] and was popularized in that sense by James Reston in the New York Times.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1487 – of the nature of fog, misty, earliest in figurative use.^[2]
• before 1529 – unhealthily fat, flabby, bloated.^[2]
• 1584 – of smoke or air, thick, murky.^[2]
• before 1591 – lacking clarity; obscure, imprecise.^[2]
• 1619 – of ale, cloudy, thick (obsolete by 1764).^[2]
• 1816 – slightly drunk.^[2][9]
• 1841 – of a memory or idea, dim, hazy.^[2]
• 1847 – of the eyes, dull or clouded.^[2]
• 1853 – confused through tiredness or illness.^[2]
• 1854 – of a photograph, cloudy, hazy.^[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Full of or covered with fog; misty: a foggy autumn evening.^[3][2]
2. Covered or clouded by moisture or grime: a foggy bathroom mirror.^[3]
3. Vague, muddled or confused: My memory of that night is foggy.^[3][2][7]
4. Of a photograph, cloudy or blurred.^[3][2][7]
5. not have the foggiest (idea) (informal): not to have the slightest idea.^[7][3]
6. (British dialect) Covered with or like coarse grass, or (Scotland) mossy.^[3][7]
7. (archaic) Unhealthily fat; flabby or bloated.^[2][3][7]
8. (obsolete) Marshy, boggy.^[3][7]

Word family

• foggily
• fogginess
• unfoggy
• Foggy Bottom

Related words

• fog
• befog
• foggage

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
10. ^ a b c 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)
11. ^ a b Popik, Barry, The Big Apple, barrypopik.com, p. "Foggy Bottom", 9 September 2011