■ adjective ( sillier , silliest )
1》 lacking in common sense or judgement; foolish.
2》 trivial or frivolous.
3》 archaic helpless; defenceless.
4》 Cricket denoting fielding positions very close to the batsman: ~ mid-on.
■ noun ( plural sillies ) informal a ~ person.
Phrases
the ~ season high summer, regarded as the season when newspapers often publish trivial material because of a lack of important news.
Derivatives
sillily adverb
silliness noun
Word History
Silly entered English (spelled seely ) in the 13th century from a Germanic source, in the senses 'happy, blissful' and 'lucky, auspicious'. From this the senses 'spiritually blessed' and 'pious and holy' arose. A subtle development in meaning from 'innocent, harmless' (often referring to animals) to 'deserving of pity' led to 'feeble' and then, from the early 16th century, 'foolish, simple'. The spelling ~ is recorded from the 15th century.