the.com/silly
the dignified ancestor of nonsense, once meaning blessed before it lost its mind
means Lacking good sense; foolish, frivolous, or absurd in a way that's more endearing than serious.
from From Old English "gesælig," meaning happy, blessed, or fortunate — a cousin of German "selig" (blessed, holy). The word took a long, downhill stroll through the centuries: blessed slid into innocent, innocent into harmless, harmless into weak, weak into foolish. By the time it reached us, all the holiness had drained out, leaving behind only the giggles.
- old meaning
- originally meant happy, blessed, or holy
- meaning drift
- slid from blessed to innocent to foolish over centuries
- silly season
- real journalism term for slow summer news months
- cricket term
- fielding positions named silly for being dangerously close
for instance
monty python — british comedy group known for absurdist humor like the dead parrot sketch (1969)
who's on first — abbott and costello's 1938 vaudeville routine with wordplay confusion