foolish

Etymology

It is formed from English fool + -ish,^[2][3][4][5] first recorded as Middle English folish.^[5][6] The noun fool is from Old French fol (“madman, idiot, jester; mad”), from Medieval Latin follus (“foolish”), from Latin follis (“bellows, leather bag”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to blow, swell”).^[3] Older Middle English adjectives were fool (about 1200) and follich (about 1300),^[3][2] and the Old English words for this were dysig, stunt and dol.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person: lacking good sense or judgement, unwise: before 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the early 14th century,^[3] Merriam-Webster to the 13th century,^[5] and Dictionary.com to 1250–1300.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Soon after, the word was used of acts and words that show poor judgement (before 1413, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde), of animals lacking intelligence (before 1425), and of people with limited mental faculties (before 1450).^[2] From the late 15th century it could mean "ridiculous, amusing", a sense that lasted in Gloucestershire dialect into the 1890s.^[2][7] The sense "insignificant, trifling, humble", recorded from 1533, is now archaic or dialectal.^[2][4] The foolish, foolish people, appears in Tyndale's Bible of 1526.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it first as "void of understanding; weak of intellect", and then as "imprudent".^[8] In 18th-century slang, prostitutes called a casual, unsophisticated customer foolish, as opposed to flash.^[9] In Cornwall, foolish money was money spent on frivolities.^[7]

Timeline

• before 1382 – lacking good sense, unwise.^[2]
• before 1413 – showing poor judgement, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.^[2]
• before 1425 – of animals, lacking intelligence.^[2]
• before 1500 – ridiculous, amusing (now obsolete).^[2]
• 1526 – the foolish, foolish people, in Tyndale's Bible.^[2]
• 1533 – insignificant, trifling.^[2]
• c. 1786 – prostitutes' slang for an unsophisticated customer.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lacking good sense or judgement; unwise or silly: It was foolish of him to drive in the storm.^[5][2][4]
2. Showing or resulting from poor judgement: a foolish bet.^[2][4]
3. Lacking sense or seriousness; ridiculous, absurd.^[5][4]
4. (archaic) Humble, insignificant, trifling.^[4][2]

Word family

• foolishly
• foolishness
• pound-foolish

Related words

• fool
• folly
• foolhardy

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ 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)
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com