fool

Pronunciation

• IPA: /fuːl/^[1]

fool¹ silly person

Etymology

The silly person is Middle English fol, borrowed from Old French fol (“madman, idiot, jester”) (modern French fou “mad”),^[2][3][4] from Late Latin follis,^[5] from Latin follis (“bellows, leather bag”), which in late Vulgar Latin came to mean a windbag, an empty-headed person,^[2][3][4][6] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to blow, swell”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A silly, stupid or ignorant person: probably about 1200 in Barnhart, the early 13th century in Etymonline, about 1275 in the OED.^[2][4][7] As an adjective it meant sinful or lecherous at first (about 1200), and foolish from the mid-13th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins compares the English windbag, used of an empty talker since the early 19th century.^[6] The professional jester is from about 1370,^[7][3] and the Feast of Fools, a medieval burlesque festival, from about 1320.^[7] One who is made a fool of, a dupe, is from about 1440.^[7] Sixteenth-century proverbs such as a fool and his money are soon parted show how aware people were of coming to grief through folly.^[6] The verb meant to be foolish in the mid-14th century, to make a fool of someone from the 1590s (Shakespeare's 1 Henry IV, 1596), and to cheat from the 1640s;^[4][2] fool around, to pass time idly, is from 1875, and to have sexual adventures from the 1970s.^[4] Foolhardy is from before 1250,^[2] and foolscap, the paper, once bore a watermark of a fool's cap.^[3] The adjective, as in a fool idea, is now considered American colloquial.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – a silly person.^[2][4]
• before 1250 – foolhardy.^[2]
• c. 1320 – Feast of Fools.^[7]
• c. 1370 – a professional jester.^[7]
• 1596 – to make a fool of, in Shakespeare.^[2]
• 1875 – to fool around.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who lacks sense or judgment.
2. A person who has been tricked or made to look ridiculous; a dupe.
3. A professional jester in a royal or noble household.
4. (informal) A person with a great liking for something: a fool for chocolate.

Verb

1. To trick or deceive.
2. To act in a silly or playful way; to joke.
3. (fool around) To idle; also to have casual sexual relations.

Adjective

1. (informal, chiefly US) Foolish, silly.

Word family

• foolery
• foolhardy
• foolish
• foolproof
• foolscap
• April fool
• fool's gold

fool² fruit dessert

Etymology

The dessert is perhaps a transferred use of fool¹.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

1598, in a sense the OED does not define precisely.^[7] At first it was a confection of clotted cream or a custard trifle.^[8]

Semantic evolution

It now means a purée of fruit, especially gooseberries, mixed with cream or custard and served cold.^[8][10]

Timeline

• 1598 – a cream confection.^[7][8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A cold dessert of puréed fruit mixed with cream or custard: gooseberry fool.

Related words

• follicle
• folly
• bellows
• ball

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins