Contextualizebeta

folly

noun
/ˈfɑli/US/ˈfɒli/UK

Etymology

Uncertain. The most common theory is that term primarily denotes a clump of trees and relates to French feuille, feuillée and English foliage; it has also been suggested that it refers to some perceived connection or resemblance of the named place to an architectural folly, but many places so named have no architectural follies and cannot be named directly for them.

  1. derived from folie — “madness”
  2. inherited from folie

Definitions

  1. Foolishness that results from a lack of foresight or lack of practicality.

    • It would be folly to walk all that way, knowing the shops are probably shut by now.
    • With the voices singing in our ears, saying That this was all folly.

  2. Thoughtless action resulting in tragic consequence.

    • The purchase of Alaska from Russia was termed Seward's folly.
    • Thames Water has become the latest object lesson in the predictable and predicted folly of privatised monopolies, aided by a regulator that’s an even bigger wet wipe than the fatbergs bunging up the sewers.

  3. A fanciful building built for purely ornamental reasons.

    • A luncheonette in the shape of a coffee cup is particularly conspicuous, as is intended of an architectural duck or folly.
    • “The Villa Straylight,” said a jeweled thing on the pedestal, in a voice like music, “is a body grown in upon itself, a Gothic folly. […]”
  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. To follow.

      • "You got any money?" he said to me. ¶ "Hell no, maybe enough for a pint of whisky till I get to Denver. What about you?" ¶ "I know where I can get some." ¶ "Where?" "Anywhere. You can always folly a man down an alley, can't you?"
      • "Anybody got the makin's?" he said. "That's one hell of a thick bunch of canvas, but I follied the seam."
      • Howandever, at the selfsame time, there was a gang of fellas from the valley of kings follying the very same pointy star. And didn't that pointy star point them king-fellas in the direction of Mary's cowstable.

    2. A clump of trees, particularly one on the crest of a hill (or sometimes on a stretch of…

      A clump of trees, particularly one on the crest of a hill (or sometimes on a stretch of open ground).

      • 'Every hill seems to have a Folly' [...] 'I mean a clump of trees on the top.'

The neighborhood

Derived

folliful, folly tower, garden folly

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for folly. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA