"silly" in seven languages
Meaningsilly
Spanish
/ˈtonto/
other source · an expressive coinage of Spanish (Corominas)
French
/bɛt/
other source · Latin BESTIAM 'beast'
Italian
/ˈʃɔkko/
other source · probably Latin EXSŪCUM 'sapless, juiceless'
Portuguese
/ˈbobu/
other source · probably Latin BALBUM 'stammering'
Romanian
/prost/
other source · Old Church Slavonic prostŭ 'simple'
Fairly blunt; the diminutive prostuț is gentler.
Catalan
/ˈʃimplə/
other source · Latin SIMPLEX 'simple', with an expressive x-
English
/ˈsɪli/
native English · Old English sǣlig 'blessed, happy'
It drifted from 'blessed' to 'innocent' to 'foolish'.
The story
Four unrelated words. French calls a silly person a beast (bête, with the circumflex of a lost s); Italian sciocco is probably 'without juice', and still means 'bland' of food in Tuscany.
Learn it
In a sentence
- es¡No seas tonto!
- frNe sois pas bête !
- itNon fare lo sciocco!
- ptNão seja bobo!
- roNu fi prost!
- caNo siguis ximple!
- enDon't be silly!