different between bootless vs frivolous

English

Etymology 1

From boot +? -less.

Adjective

bootless (not comparable)

1. Without boots.

Etymology 2

From Middle English boteles, botles, from Old English b?tl?as; equivalent to boot (“profit; use; behoof”) +? -less. Doublet of botleas.

Alternative forms

• boteless

Adjective

bootless (comparative more bootless, superlative most bootless)

1. Profitless; pointless; unavailing.
   • 1592–1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet XXIX:

     When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, / I all alone beweep my outcast state / And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries

Synonyms

• fruitless

Derived terms

• bootlessly
• bootlessness

Translations

English

Etymology

From Latin fr?volus (“silly, empty, trifling, frivolous, worthless”), with the ending modified to match -ous.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f??v.?l.?s/
• Hyphenation: friv?o?lous

Adjective

frivolous (comparative more frivolous, superlative most frivolous)

1. Silly, especially at an inappropriate time or in an inappropriate manner.
2. Of little weight or importance; not worth notice; slight.
3. (law, said of a lawsuit) Having no reasonable prospect of success because its claim is without merit, lacking a supporting legal or factual basis, while the filing party is, or should be, aware of this.
   • 2005, Factcheck.org^[1]:

     One of the major cost drivers in the delivery of health care are these junk and frivolous lawsuits.

Derived terms

• frivolent
• frivolously
• frivolousness

Related terms

• frivol
• frivolity

Translations

Further reading

• frivolous in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• frivolous in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.