How words of praise, blame and respect changed their meaning.
silly (adj.)
Collection
How We Judge
Silly began with good fortune. Its Old English ancestor meant happy or fortunate, and the related German word selig still means blessed or blissful. In Middle English, forms such as sely and seely carried meanings including blessed and innocent. 12
Innocence could also suggest being harmless or unable to defend oneself. The word came to describe someone deserving pity, then someone weak. By the sixteenth century it could describe a person judged to lack sense. These meanings developed along overlapping paths, with innocence and helplessness giving way to foolishness.1
Today silly can be a mild criticism of someone’s judgement or an affectionate word for playful behaviour. The older meanings survive in texts where a “silly” person may be helpless or humble.2
I made a silly mistake when I copied the address.