fatuous
/ˈfatjʊəs
/adjective
Silly and pointless: a fatuous comment...
- However, based on some of the fatuous comments I've been reading on this topic, we may expect to hear it soon.
- Mountaineering has engendered more fatuous comment than most human pastimes, much of it from mountaineers themselves.
- Gentle reader, let me assure you that this is fatuous nonsense.
Synonyms
silly, foolish, stupid, inane, nonsensical, childish, puerile, infantile, idiotic, brainless, mindless, vacuous, imbecilic, asinine, witless, empty-headed, hare-brained;
pointless, senseless;
ridiculous, ludicrous, absurd, preposterous, laughable, risible
informal daft, moronic, cretinous, dumb, gormless
Derivatives
fatuity
/ noun (plural fatuities) ...- It is a statement of such surpassing fatuity that one wonders: is she really that stupid, or does she think we're that stupid?
- No words can convey the depths of his fatuity, except his own.
- To him, the fatuity of the learned judge is an example of our tendency to throw about words that have lost all meaning, even in the mouths of educated people.
fatuously
/ adverb ...- I really can't remember when I last saw a more fatuously featureless feature.
- But they also describe it, fatuously, as ‘comprehensive’.
- But it's the same little fellow, beaming somewhat fatuously and raising the staff in blessing like a young bishop.
fatuousness
/ noun ...- In the darkest days of the Dark Ages, no superstition surpassed this one for silliness, fatuousness, or just plain ignorance.
- The only point in rehearsing these notorious facts, which deter investment and inhibit economic growth, is to mark the fatuousness of proposals to solve everybody's problems, ours and theirs, by pouring in more foreign aid.
- That makes you understand the fatuousness of nationalism because you can't tell the nationality of a bone.
Origin
Early 17th century: from Latin fatuus 'foolish' + -ous.
fade from Middle English:
The early sense of fade was ‘grow weak, waste away’. The word comes from Old French fade ‘dull, insipid’, probably a blend of Latin fatuus ‘silly, insipid’ (source of E17th fatuous), and vapidus ‘vapid’ (see vapour). The sense ‘lose freshness’ (faded colours) developed in English alongside the meaning ‘lose strength’.