dizzyadj.

Brit.

/ˈdɪzi/, U.S.

/ˈdɪzi/

Forms: Old English dysig, dyseg, Middle English dysiȝ, dusiȝ, dusi(e /y/, Middle English–1500s desi(e); Middle English–1500s dys(s)y, (1500s dusey), 1500s–1600s dis(s)ie, -y; 1500s–1600s diz(z)ie, 1600s– dizzy.

Etymology: Old English dysig , dyseg foolish, stupid = Old Frisian dusig , Middle Dutch dosech , dösech , Low German dusig , dösig , dusig giddy, Old High German tusig , tusic foolish, weak, a common West Germanic adjective in -ig (-y suffix¹), from a root dus- found also in Low German dusen to be giddy, Old English dyslíc, dyselíc foolish, stupid, and in a different ablaut grade with long vowel in Low German dûsel giddiness, Middle Dutch dûzelen, Dutch duizelen to be giddy or stupid.Compare the early Middle English derivatives dusilec n., dusischip n.

a. Foolish, stupid. Now only dialect. (Not in general use since 13th cent.)

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > foolishness, folly > [adjective]

dizzyc825

unwisec825

redelessOE

unwittyc1000

daftlikec1175

witlessc1175

canga1225

adoted?c1225

cangun?c1225

egedec1225

cangeda1250

foola1250

snepea1250

aerwittec1275

sotlyc1275

unslyc1275

unwitterc1275

unwilya1300

nicec1300

goosishc1374

unskilfulc1374

follyc1380

lewdc1380

mis-feelinga1382

dottlec1390

foltedc1390

peevishc1400

fona1425

fonnishc1425

foliousa1450

foolisha1450

daft?c1450

doitedc1450

dotyc1450

daffish1470

insapientc1470

gucked?a1500

wanwittya1500

furious1526

insipient1528

seelya1529

dawish?1529

foolage1545

momish1546

base-wittedc1547

stultitiousa1549

follifulc1550

senseless1565

mopish1568

fondish1579

unsensiblea1586

fondly1587

dizzardly1594

follial1596

featlessc1598

fopperly1599

gowkeda1605

inept1604

simple1604

anserine1607

foppish1608

silly ass1608

unsage1608

wisdomless1608

fool-beggeda1616

Gotham1621

noddy1645

badot1653

dosser-headed1655

infrunite1657

nonsensicalc1661

slight1663

sappy1670

datelessa1686

noddy-peaked1694

nizy1709

dottled1772

gypit1804

shay-brained1806

folly-stricken1807

fool-like1811

goosy1811

spoony1813

niddle-noddle1821

gumptionless1823

daftish1825

anserous1826

as crazy as a loon1830

spoonish1833

cheese-headed1836

dotty1860

fool-fool1868

noodly1870

dilly1873

gormless1883

daffy1884

monkey-doodle1886

mosy1887

jay1891

pithecanthropic1897

peanut-headed1906

dinlo1907

boob1911

goofy1921

ding-a-ling1935

jerky1944

jerk1947

jerkish1948

pointy-headed1950

doofus1967

twitty1967

twittish1969

nerkish1975

numpty1992

c825 Vesp. Hymns vii Swe folc dysig.

c950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. vii. 26 Gelic bið were dysge se ðe getimberde hus his ofer sonde [c1160 Hatton desien men].

971 Blickl. Hom. 41 Geþenc, þu dysega mon.

c1175 Lamb. Hom. 117 Þer þe dusie mon bið þriste and þer þe dwolunge rixað.

?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 139 Nolde me tellen him alre worlde dusegest.

a1250 Owl & Nightingale 1466 Dusi luve ne last noht longe.

a1275 Prov. Ælfred 479 in Old Eng. Misc. 131 Wurþu neuere so wod, ne so desi of þi mod.

1876 F. K. Robinson Gloss. Words Whitby Dizzy, half-witted.

1893 S. Baring-Gould Cheap Jack Zita II. xvi. 45 Such dizzy-fools that they put their money there.

†b. absol. A foolish man, a fool. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > stupid, foolish, or inadequate person > foolish person, fool > [noun]

dizzyc825

cang?c1225

foolc1225

apec1330

mopc1330

saddle-goosec1346

mis-feelinga1382

foltc1390

mopec1390

fona1400

buffardc1430

fopc1440

joppec1440

fonda1450

fondlinga1450

insipienta1513

plume of feathers1530

bobolynec1540

dizzard1546

Little Witham?1548

nodc1563

dawkin1565

cocknel1566

nigion1570

niddicock1577

nodcock1577

cuckoo1581

Jack with the feather1581

niddipol1582

noddyship?1589

stirkc1590

fonkin1591

Gibraltar1593

fopper1598

noddypeak1598

coxcombry1600

simple1600

gowka1605

nup1607

fooliaminy1608

silly ass1608

dosser-head1612

dor1616

glow-worm1624

liripipea1625

doodle1629

sop1637

spalt1639

fool's head1650

buffle1655

Jack Adams1656

bufflehead1659

nincompoopc1668

bavian1678

nokes1679

foolanea1681

cod1699

hulver-head1699

nigmenog1699

single ten1699

mud1703

dowf1722

foolatum1740

silly billy1749

tommy noddy1774

arsec1785

nincom1800

silly1807

slob1810

omadhaun1818

potwalloper1820

mosy1824

amadan1825

gump1825

gype1825

oonchook1825

prawn1845

suck-egg1851

goosey1852

nowmun1854

pelican1856

poppy-show1860

buggerlugs1861

damfool1881

mudhead1882

yob1886

peanut head1891

haggis bag1892

poop1893

gazob1906

mush1906

wump1908

zob1911

gorm1912

goof1916

goofus1916

gubbins1916

dumb cluck1922

twat1922

B.F.1925

goofer1925

bird brain1926

berk1929

Berkeley1929

Berkeley Hunt1929

ding1929

loogan1929

stupido1929

poop-stick1930

nelly1931

droop1932

diddy1933

slappy1937

goof ball1938

get1940

poon1940

tonk1941

clot1942

yuck1943

possum1945

gobdaw1947

momo1953

nig-nog1953

plonker1955

weenie1956

nong-nong1959

Berkshire Hunt1960

balloon1965

doofus1965

dork1965

nana1965

shit-for-brains1966

schmoll1967

tosspot1967

lunchbox1969

doof1971

tonto1973

dorkus1979

motorhead1979

mouth-breather1979

wally1980

wally brain1981

der-brain1983

langer1983

numpty1985

sotong1988

fanny1995

fannybaws2000

c825 Vesp. Psalter xci. 6 Dysig ne ongiteð ða.

c1175 Lamb. Hom. 33 Hwet seið þe dusie.

c1175 Lamb. Hom. 105 Wreððe hafð wununge on þes dusian bosme.

a1225 Leg. Kath. 599 Ha ne stod neauer, ear þene þes dei, bute biforen dusie.

2. Having a sensation of whirling or vertigo in the head, with proneness to fall; giddy.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > vertigo > [adjective]

dizzyc1340

turngiddy1398

turn-sickc1440

lighta1500

light-headeda1500

dozy1530

swimec1540

giddy1570

swimming1607

vertiginous1608

vertiginal1612

vertiginous1621

vertigious1623

hiddy-giddy1629

swimmering1650

wheel-sick1670

giddyish1711

swimmy1836

whizzy1866

dizzied1870

c1340 R. Rolle Pricke of Conscience 771 Than waxes his hert hard and hevy. And his heved feble and dysy.

a1529 J. Skelton Magnyfycence (?1530) sig. Ciiii^v I daunce vp and downe tyll I am dyssy.

1568 W. Turner Herbal (rev. ed.) i. 20 [Wolfesbayne] maketh [men] dusey [1551 dosey] in the head.

1581 R. Mulcaster Positions xvi. 72 For feare they be disie when they daunce.

1653 H. Cogan tr. F. M. Pinto Voy. & Adventures xiii. 40 They were so exceeding dizzy in the head that they would fall down.

1852 J. W. Carlyle Lett. II. 200 With my heart beating and my head quite dizzy.

figurative.1726 J. Thomson Winter 7 The reeling Clouds Stagger with dizzy Aim, as doubting yet Which Master to obey.

Thesaurus »

a. Mentally unsteady or in a whirl.

b. Wanting moral stability, giddy.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > will > decision > irresolution or vacillation > inconstancy > [adjective] > capricious or whimsical

startfulmood?a1300

wildc1350

volage?a1366

gerfulc1374

geryc1386

wild-headeda1400

skittishc1412

gerish1430

shittle1440

shittle-witted1448

runningc1449

volageous1487

glaikit1488

fantasious1490

giggish1523

tickle or light of the sear?1530

fantastical1531

wayward1531

wantona1538

peevish1539

light-headed1549

humoral1573

unstaid1579

shittle-headed1580

toy-headed1581

fangled1587

humorous1589

choiceful1591

toyish1598

tricksy1598

skip-brain1603

capricious1605

humoursome1607

planetary1607

vertiginous1609

whimsieda1625

ingiddied1628

whimsy1637

toysome1638

cocklec1640

mercurial1647

garish1650

maggoty1650

kicksey-winseya1652

freakish1653

humourish1653

planetic1653

whimsical1653

shittle-braineda1655

freaking1663

maggoty-headed1667

maggot-pated1681

hoity-toity1690

maggotish1693

maggot-headeda1695

whimsy-headed1699

fantasque1701

crotchetly1702

quixotic1718

volatile1719

holloweda1734

conundrumical1743

flighty1768

fly-away1775

dizzy1780

whimmy1785

shy1787

whimming1787

quirky1789

notional1791

tricksome1815

vagarish1819

freakful1820

faddy1824

moodish1827

mawky1837

erratic1841

rockety1843

quirkish1848

maggoty-pated1850

crotchetya1854

freaksome1854

faddish1855

vagrom1882

fantasied1883

vagarisome1883

on-and-offish1888

tricksical1889

freaky1891

hobby-horsical1893

quirksome1896

temperamental1907

up and down1960

untogether1969

fanciful-

fantastic-

1579 (c1501) G. Douglas Palice of Honour (Edinb.) Prol. l. 101 in Shorter Poems (1967) 15 My desie heid quhome laik of brane gart vary.

1599 Master Broughtons Lett. Answered ii. 9 Meere buzzings of your owne conceited dizzie braine.

1671 J. Milton Paradise Regain'd ii. 420 At thy heels the dizzy Multitude.

1780 W. Cowper Table Talk 607 He..dizzy with delight, profaned the sacred wires.

1871 B. Jowett tr. Plato Dialogues I. 58 My head is dizzy with thinking of the argument.

1878 J. H. Beadle Western Wilds xxxv Dance houses and saloons multiplied and ‘dizzy doves’ gave an air of abandon to the streets.

1879 G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-bk. Duzzy, stupid; confused. ‘I'm mighty duzzy this morning.’

1888 Texas Siftings 29 Sept. (Farmer) Professional beauties or maidens, commonly called dizzy blondes.

1938 G. Heyer Blunt Instrument ix. 166 The dizzy blonde herself.

1945 Penguin New Writing 23 42 A dizzy blonde all dressed up like a dog's dinner.

c. Startling, astonishing, vivid. slang.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > [adjective] > vast, immense, or huge > and amazing

ferlya1400

wonderfulc1540

stupendiousa1549

portentous1553

stupenduous1610

stupendous1618

stupend1621

tremendous1813

awesome1838

devastating1889

dizzy1896

doozy1903

staggering1934

eyewatering1950

zonking great1958

stonking1980

1896 G. Ade Artie xvii. 158 They was out there in them dizzy togs cuttin' up and down the track.

1897 Daily News 10 Aug. 5/2 Four straw hats with ‘dizzy bands’.

1923 R. D. Paine Comrades Rolling Ocean v. 84 When she limped into Brest a week overdue, the admiral called it a dizzy miracle.

4. Accompanied with or producing giddiness.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > vertigo > [adjective] > causing

giddy1585

dizzy1608

vertiginous1649

dizzying1804

giddying1820

heady1898

1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear xx. 12 How feareful And dizi tis to cast ones eyes so low.

1644 J. Milton Doctr. Divorce (ed. 2) To Parl. sig. A3 Did not the distemper of their own stomacks affect them with a dizzy megrim.

1810 S. Rogers Voy. Columbus i. 2 The very ship-boy, on the dizzy mast.

1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 561 He began..to climb..towards that dizzy pinnacle.

5. Arising from or caused by giddiness; reeling.

ΚΠ

1716 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad II. v. 381 Lost in a dizzy Mist the Warrior lies.

1740 C. Pitt tr. Virgil Æneid II. xi. 555 A dizzy mist of darkness swims around.

1782 W. Cowper Hope in Poems 167 The wretch that once..suck'd in dizzy madness with his draught.

1863 ‘G. Eliot’ Romola II. xix. 243 Thought gave way to a dizzy horror, as if the earth were slipping away from under him.

6. figurative. Whirling with mad rapidity.

ΘΚΠ

the world > movement > motion in specific manner > revolution or rotation > [adjective] > whirling > with mad rapidity

giddy1594

dizzy1791

1791 W. Cowper tr. Homer Iliad in Iliad & Odyssey I. xxi. 10 Push'd down the sides of Xanthus, headlong plung'd, With dashing sound into his dizzy stream.

1814 W. Wordsworth Excursion viii. 367 The..Stream, That turns the multitude of dizzy wheels.

7. Dull of hearing. dialect.

ΚΠ

1879 G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-bk. Duzzy, deafish. ‘'E's lother duzzy; e doesna 'ear very well.’

Compounds

dizzy-eyed adj.

ΚΠ

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 1 (1623) iv. vii. 11 Dizzie-ey'd Furie..Suddenly made him from my side to start.

dizzy-headed adj.

ΚΠ

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Estourdi, dulled, amazed..dizzie-headed.

1654 J. Trapp Comm. Psalms cvii. 33 A company of dizzy-headed men.

This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1897; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

dizzyv.

Brit.

/ˈdɪzi/, U.S.

/ˈdɪzi/

Etymology: Old English had dysigan , dysegian , dysian to be foolish, to act or talk foolishly = Old Frisian dusia , whence the intransitive sense 1; but the transitive sense seems to be a later formation, < the adjective in its modern form and sense.

†1.

a. intransitive. To act foolishly or stupidly. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > foolishness, folly > be or become foolish [verb (intransitive)]

dizzyc888

assotc1175

adote?c1225

fonc1425

desipiate1623

c888 Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. v. §2 Þonne dysegaþ se þe þonne wile hwilc sæd oþfæstan þam drygum furum.

a1275 Prov. Ælfred 466 in Old Eng. Misc. 131 Ac [gif] he drinkit and desiet þere a morȝe, so þat he fordrunken desiende werchet.

†b. To talk foolishly, blaspheme (in Old English).

ΚΠ

c1000 West Saxon Gospels: Mark (Corpus Cambr.) ii. 7 Hwi spycð þes þus . he dysegað.

c1000 West Saxon Gospels: Luke (Corpus Cambr.) xxii. 65 Manega oðre þing hig him to cwædon dysigende.

2. transitive. To make dizzy or giddy; to cause (any sense) to reel; to produce a swimming sensation in, to turn the head of.

ΚΠ

1579 (c1501) G. Douglas Palice of Honour (Edinb.) Prol. l. 109 in Shorter Poems (1967) 15 And with that gleme sa desyit was my micht.

1609 W. Shakespeare Troilus & Cressida v. ii. 177 Not the dreadfull spout..Shal dizzy with more clamour Neptunes eare, in his discent, Then [etc.] .

1663 A. Cowley Cutter of Coleman-St. v. xiii. 68 You turn my Head, you dizzie me.

1785 A. Grant Let. 18 Aug. in Lett. from Mountains (1806) III. 84 It dizzies one to look down from the tower.

1820 R. Southey Lodore Confounding, astounding, Dizzying and deafening the ear with its sound.

3. To render unsteady in brain or mind; to bewilder or confuse mentally.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > inattention > mental wandering > confuse, bewilder [verb (transitive)]

bewhapec1320

mara1350

blunder?a1400

mada1425

to turn a person's brainc1440

astonish1530

maskc1540

dare1547

bemud1599

bedazea1605

dizzy1604

bemist1609

muddify1647

lose1649

bafflea1657

bewildera1680

bother?1718

bemuse1734

muddlea1748

flurrya1757

muzz1786

muzzle1796

flusker1841

haze1858

bemuddle1862

jitter1932

giggle-

1604 W. Shakespeare Hamlet v. ii. 107 + 8 To deuide him inuentorially, would dosie [1605 dazzie, 1611 dizzie] th' arithmaticke of memory.

1801 H. M. Williams Sketches Manners French Republic I. i. 7 That wild and chimerical equality, the fumes of which dizzy the head of the demagogue.

1852 H. B. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin I. xvi. 248 Giving her so many..charges, that a head less systematic and business-like than Miss Ophelia's would have been utterly dizzied and confounded.

absolute.1864 J. H. Newman Apologia 378 All this is a vision to dizzy and appal.

Derivatives

ˈdizzied adj.

ΘΚΠ