different between dizzy vs ditzy

English

Alternative forms

• dizzie (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English disy, dysy, desi, dusy, from Old English dysi?, dyse? (“dizzy; foolish; unwise; stupid”), from Proto-Germanic *dusigaz (“stunned; dazed”). Akin to West Frisian dize (“fog”), Dutch deusig, duizig (“dizzy”), duizelig (“dizzy”), German dösig (“sleepy; stupid”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?d?zi/
• Rhymes: -?zi

Adjective

dizzy (comparative dizzier, superlative dizziest)

1. Having a sensation of whirling and of being giddy, unbalanced, or lightheaded.

   I stood up too fast and felt dizzy.

   • 1627, Michael Drayton, Nimphidia, the Court of Faery

     Alas! his brain was dizzy.

2. Producing giddiness.

   We climbed to a dizzy height.

   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter IX

     ...faintly from the valley far below came an unmistakable sound which brought me to my feet, trembling with excitement, to peer eagerly downward from my dizzy ledge.

3. Empty-headed, scatterbrained or frivolous; ditzy.

   My new secretary is a dizzy blonde.

Derived terms

• dizzies (noun)
• dizzily
• dizziness
• dizzyingly

Translations

Verb

dizzy (third-person singular simple present dizzies, present participle dizzying, simple past and past participle dizzied)

1. (transitive) To make dizzy, to bewilder.
   • , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.161:

     Let me have this violence and compulsion removed, there is nothing that, in my seeming, doth more bastardise and dizzie a wel-borne and gentle nature […].

English

Alternative forms

• ditsy

Etymology

Since early 1800's commonly used by Pennsylvania Dutch (Penslfawnisch Deitsch); possibly a borrowing from dialectal German dutzig, also dützig, ditzig (“numb, dazed, dizzy, as after having been punched; dull, stupid”), from dialectal dutzen (“to butt, hit, punch”). Compare German verdutzt (“dumbfounded”) and regional Dötsche (“bump, dent, bruise”). Unlikely, an alteration of dizzy, of American origin.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?d?tsi/

Adjective

ditzy (comparative ditzier, superlative ditziest)

1. (informal) Silly or scatterbrained, usually of a young woman.
   • 2011, Ellen Block, The Definition of Wind: A Novel, Bantam (?ISBN), page 31:

     The guy tossed some cash on the counter, then left with the ditzy girl and Abigail's fan.

   • 2013, Francisco Goldman, The Long Night of White Chickens, Grove Press (?ISBN), Seven:

     […] —and she'd smile like a primly mischievous Japanese girl, or like some slyly ditzy ingenue on a talk show, all the while watching her interrogator try to fathom (though sometimes they were pretty dim and just said, “Oh”) the surprising cleverness of her answer.

   • 2015, Thomas Lisanti, Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies: The First Wave, 1959–1969, McFarland (?ISBN), page 262:

     After hiring a crew of young guys and gals including loyal Jo, unlucky-in-love Frankie, strapping Bob, wisecracking Dee Dee, ditzy blonde Jonesy and titian-haired Penny, the gang drives up to the lodge.

Related terms

• ditz

Translations