Chrysti The Wordsmith: Silly - 2

Readings this is Christie the wordsmith less time on the series. We followed the word silly through the centuries and watched its evolution from a word meaning blessid holy and pious to innocent and pitiable and finally saw it arrive at its primary modern definition foolish and lacking in judgment. Silly the word giddy has a similar biography today giddy means mentally intoxicated or light heartedly foolish. We might claim to be giddy with love or excitement or anticipation but several centuries ago giddiness was a serious condition and nothing like being in love. The word shares its roots with an old Teutonic term that refers to God. In fact if you follow it back far enough. Geddy means possessed by a god. The word was used to describe the insane and the delusional. For such were once thought to be possessed by spirits. As the centuries pass however the word merely aerated or gained a more positive connotation no longer associated with madness. Getty came to mean

foolish or stupid through the 15 16 and 17 hundreds. Someone who felt dizzy or vertiginous or about to fall over was considered giddy. That which world chaotically was said to move in a giddy fashion in 1764 author Oliver Goldsmith wrote of a giddy Tempest. And by the 1900s the word had achieved its current meaning of light heartedly foolish giddy. I'm Christie the wordsmith. Good day for the horse. CHRISTIE The wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry Web dot com.