different between flighty vs zany

English

Etymology

From flight +? -y. Compare Dutch vluchtig (“volatile; fleeting; cursory”), German flüchtig (“volatile; fleeting; momentary; quick”), Danish flygtig (“elusive; evasive”), Swedish flyktig.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fla?ti/

Adjective

flighty (comparative flightier, superlative flightiest)

1. Given to unplanned and silly ideas or actions.
2. (of a bird) That flies easily or often.
   • 2013, Diego Gil, Henrik Brumm, Avian Urban Ecology

     "We know that flighty birds suffer from greater risk of raptor predation, and I assume that it is useful to understand the effects of urbanization because flighty species may be more vulnerable to anthropogenic disturbance."

3. (obsolete) Swift.

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle French zani, zanni, from Italian zanni (“a kind of masked clown character”), from Zanni, a dialectal form of Giovanni.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ze?ni/
• Rhymes: -e?ni
• Hyphenation: za?ny

Adjective

zany (comparative zanier, superlative zaniest)

1. Unusual and awkward in a funny, comical manner; outlandish; clownish.
2. Ludicrously or incongruously comical.

Synonyms

• wacky

Derived terms

• zaniness

Translations

Noun

zany (plural zanies)

1. (obsolete) A fool or clown, especially one whose business on the stage is to imitate foolishly the actions of the principal clown.
   • a. 1631, John Donne, Epistle to Mr. I. W.

     Then write that I may follow, and so be / Thy echo, thy debtor, thy foil, thy zany.

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     So there he caught me lying like a zany on the ground. You may guess I stood at attention soon enough, but told him I was looking at the founds to see if they wanted underpinning from the floods.

Verb

zany (third-person singular simple present zanies, present participle zanying, simple past and past participle zanied)

1. (obsolete) To mimic foolishly.

References

• John Dover Wilson, comp. (1911) Life in Shakespeare's England: A Book of Elizabethan Prose, Cambridge: At the University Press, OCLC 2938084.

Anagrams

• Zayn, zayn