different between daft vs daffy

English

Etymology

From Middle English dafte, defte (“gentle; having good manners; humble, modest; awkward; dull; boorish”), from Old English dæfte (“accommodating; gentle, meek, mild”),, from Proto-West Germanic *daft? (“fitting, suitable”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *d?h?eb?- (“fitting; to fit together”).

Compare silly which originally meant “blessed; good, innocent; pitiful; weak”, but now means “laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance; mentally simple, foolish”.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d??ft/
• (UK, General American) enPR: d?ft, IPA^(key): /dæft/
• Rhymes: -??ft, -æft

Adjective

daft (comparative dafter, superlative daftest)

1. (chiefly Britain, informal) Foolish, silly, stupid.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:foolish
2. (chiefly Britain, informal) Crazy, insane, mad.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:insane
3. (obsolete) Gentle, meek, mild.

Derived terms

Related terms

• bedaft
• deft

Translations

References

Further reading

• daft (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• DFAT

Middle English

Adjective

daft

1. Alternative form of defte

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?dæfi/
• Rhymes: -æfi

Etymology 1

From daff +? -y.

Adjective

daffy (comparative daffier, superlative daffiest)

1. (colloquial) Somewhat mad or eccentric.

   Synonyms: crazy, nutty, wacky

   • 1909, Gene Stratton-Porter, A Girl of the Limberlost, ch. 1

     "You've gone so plum daffy you are forgetting your dinner," jeered her mother.

   • 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald, O Russet Witch!, ch. 4

     He was daffy about her and she could twist him around her little finger.

Etymology 2

Noun

daffy (plural daffies)

1. (informal) A daffodil.

Etymology 3

An allusion to an old medicine known as Daffy's Elixir.

Noun

daffy (uncountable)

1. (Britain, slang, dated) Gin.
   • 1954, Denzil Batchelor, Big Fight: The Story of World Championship Boxing (page 44)

     […] he failed repeatedly until he took over his famous house in Haymarket, where for many years, surrounded by such admirers as Byron, Tom Moore and Hazlitt, he smoked his yard of clay, drained his glass of 'daffy', and […]

   • 1991, Julie Caille, Change of Heart (page 255)

     Within Castle Tavern, at Holborn, Charles Perth and Lord Lucan were drowning their disparate sorrows in a glass of daffy.

References

• 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary