folly

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English folie,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman folie, from Old French folie (“folly, madness, stupidity”),^[5][6][7][8] from fol (“foolish, mad”) and the suffix -ie.^[5][9][10] The adjective fol is the source of fool;^[6][3] it comes from Latin follis (“bellows, leather bag”), which in Late Latin also meant a windbag or fool.^[6][3] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1113–19, with senses ranging from madness and foolishness to wickedness, crime and loose living.^[8] The OED compares Old Occitan folia, Catalan follia and Italian follia.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Foolishness, lack of good sense, unwise conduct: about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[5][7][2] Etymonline dates the word to the early 13th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word covered much more than foolishness: it also meant wrongdoing and sin (from before 1275 to 1588), lewdness or fornication (about 1300 to 1702), and madness or rage (before 1400 to 1670).^[5][6] Chaucer used it 94 times, in the senses folly, insanity, sin and lechery.^[11] An example of foolishness, a foolish act or idea, is recorded from about 1300.^[5][6] Johnson (1755) still gave "criminal weakness; depravity of mind" as its second sense.^[12] From 1591, in R. Greene's Second Part of Conny-catching, folly was the name for an extravagant building that proved too costly to finish or was otherwise ridiculed;^[5] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1650s.^[6] The OED takes it as probably a simple development of the main sense, comparing the medieval Latin name stultitia Huberti, "Hubert's folly", for a costly castle Hubert de Burgh built in the Welsh Marches in 1228, but also mentions French folie (“country house”), an alteration of feuillée (“foliage, hut covered with leaves”).^[5] Weekley likewise thought the sense partly due to Old French folie for a country pleasure-house,^[13] and Etymonline notes that the word appears in English place names, especially of country estates, since Middle English.^[6] From 1773 it was used of a purely ornamental structure, such as a tower or artificial ruin, in a large garden or park.^[5] In the plural, follies has meant a glamorous theatrical revue since 1874, as in the Ziegfeld Follies, probably after French folie, a comic vaudeville piece.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – foolishness, lack of good sense.^[5][7]
• before 1275 – a wrongdoing, sin or crime (obsolete by 1588).^[5]
• c. 1300 – a foolish act, idea or practice; also lewdness (obsolete by 1702).^[5][6]
• before 1400 – madness, rage (obsolete by 1670).^[5]
• 1591 – an extravagant building ridiculed as foolish.^[5]
• 1773 – an ornamental tower, temple or sham ruin in a park.^[5]
• 1874 – plural, a theatrical revue with showgirls.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Lack of good sense; foolishness: It would be folly to sail in this weather.^[14][9][5]
2. A foolish action, idea or undertaking.^[14][9][5]
3. A costly ornamental building, such as a sham castle, tower or ruin, built to please a fancy rather than for use.^[14][9][5]
4. follies (plural): a revue with elaborately costumed performers.^[14][5]
5. (archaic) wickedness, evil; also lewd conduct.^[14][5][12]

Related words

• fool
• foolery
• foolish

Usage notes

In dialect, folly was used in Scotland and in northern and Midland counties from Northumberland to Warwickshire for a useless or ridiculous building,^[15] and in Berkshire, Norfolk and Wiltshire for a clump of trees on the crest of a hill;^[15] the OED records the latter as a rare southern use (1880–88) of uncertain origin.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b 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)