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
- A person who lacks sense or judgment.
- A person who has been tricked or made to look ridiculous; a dupe.
- A professional jester in a royal or noble household.
- (informal) A person with a great liking for something: a fool for chocolate.
Verb
- To trick or deceive.
- To act in a silly or playful way; to joke.
- (fool around) To idle; also to have casual sexual relations.
Adjective
- (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
Modern meaning
Noun
- A cold dessert of puréed fruit mixed with cream or custard: gooseberry fool.
Related words
- follicle
- folly
- bellows
- ball
References
- ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins