different between odd vs silly

English

Etymology

From Middle English od, odde (“odd (not even); leftover after division into pairs”), from Old Norse oddi (“odd, third or additional number; triangle”), from oddr (“point of a weapon”), from Proto-Germanic *uzdaz (“point”), from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to stick, prick, pierce, sting”) + Proto-Indo-European *d?eh?- (“to set, place”). Cognate to Icelandic oddi (“triangle, point of land, odd number”), Swedish udda (“odd”), udd (“a point”), Norwegian Bokmål odde (“a point”, “odd”, “peculiar”); related to Old English ord (“a point”). Doublet of ord ("point").

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?d
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?d/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?d/
• Rhymes: -?d
• Homophone: awed (in accents with the cot-caught merger)

Adjective

odd (not generally comparable, comparative odder, superlative oddest)

1. Differing from what is usual, ordinary or expected.

   Synonyms: unusual, strange; see also Thesaurus:strange

   Antonyms: common, familiar, mediocre; see also Thesaurus:common

   1. Peculiar, singular and strange in looks or character; eccentric, bizarre.
      • 2003, Kenneth Rubin, Andrea Thompson, The Friendship Factor, Penguin (?ISBN):

        [One of them would] say, 'Hi, Mother.' This might be Chrissie with the purple hair and black lipstick, or Adam, who usually wore odd leather stuff. Sometimes 'Hi' was all I heard; other times they'd stay and talk for a minute.

2. (not comparable) Without a corresponding mate in a pair or set; unmatched; (of a pair or set) mismatched.

   Synonyms: single, mismatched

   My cat Fluffy has odd eyes: one blue and one brown.

3. (not comparable) Left over, remaining after the rest have been paired or grouped.

4. (not comparable) Left over or remaining (as a small amount) after counting, payment, etc.
   • 2009, Sam O'Connor, Tales of Old Las Vegas: Inside are a Few Stories Set in the 60's, where There was More to the Action Than the Games, AuthorHouse (?ISBN), page 187:

     "Here, I have some odd change that should make things easier." As Tish turned and reached for the cigarettes, Eric took some loose coins from his pocket and placed the change from the twenty into his other pocket.

   • 2010, Chris Thomas, The Rockefeller Fraud, Xulon Press (?ISBN), page 24:

     Third was my college loan of five thousand dollars and some odd change.

5. (not comparable) Scattered; occasional, infrequent; not forming part of a set or pattern.

   I don't speak Latin well, so in hearing a dissertation in Latin, I would only be able to make out the odd word of it.

   • 1998, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Ronald Hingley, Five Plays, Oxford University Press, USA (?ISBN), page 148:

     There are odd bits of green here and there in patches, but no continuous stretches. The elk, swans and woodgrouse are no more. The old hamlets, farmsteads, hermitages and mills have vanished without trace.

6. (not comparable) Not regular or planned.

7. (not comparable) Used or employed for odd jobs.
   • 1879, Journal of Horticulture and Practical Gardening, page 262:

     The odd horse will now be employed in carting couch grass on to pasture land, carting hay, &c, to sheep in the field, carting roots, straw, &c, for feeding cattle in the boxes or dairy cows in the stalls or yards, and in various odd jobs on the farm  ...

   • 1894, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Sessional papers. Inventory control record 1, page 57:

     At about 14 he rises a step by getting the 'odd' horse and cart, and does all the small carting work about the farm.
8. (mathematics, not comparable) Numerically indivisible by two.

   Antonym: even
9. (not comparable) Numbered with an odd number.

10. (not comparable, in combination with a number) About, approximately; somewhat more than (an approximated round number).

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:about, Thesaurus:approximately

11. Out of the way, secluded.
    • 1958, Henry Miller, The Colossus of Maroussi, New Directions Publishing (?ISBN), page 218:

      "Well, isn't it a bit unusual to run into an old friend in an odd corner of the world like this?" I asked.

    • 2015, Karen Newcomb, The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden: Grow Tons of Organic Vegetables in Tiny Spaces and Containers, Ten Speed Press (?ISBN):

      Plant a clump in your postage stamp garden, or stuff them in an odd corner of a flower bed. (They prefer full sun but will tolerate filtered shade.)

12. (sports) On the left.

    He served from the odd court.

13. (obsolete) Singular in excellence; matchless; peerless; outstanding. [since the 1400s]
    • 1886, Walter William Skeat, The Wars of Alexander: An Alliterative Romance Translated Chiefly from the Historia Alexandri Magni de Preliis, page 120, in (modern English) notes about the Middle English text:

      He goes to Phrygia, and sees Scamander. "Happy are all," he says, "who are honoured by that odd clerk. Homer." In Macedonia, he finds hie mother.

    • 1815, Walter Scott, Guy Mannering – or The Astrologer:

      I assure you, if I were Hazlewood I should look on his compliments, his bowings, his cloakings, his shawlings, and his handings with some little suspicion; and truly I think Hazlewood does so too at some odd times.

Derived terms

Related terms

• ord
• odds and ends

Translations

Noun

odd (plural odds)

1. (mathematics, diminutive) An odd number.

   So let's see. There are two evens here and three odds.

2. (colloquial) Something left over, not forming part of a set.

   I've got three complete sets of these trading cards for sale, plus a few dozen odds.

Translations

See also

• Odd Rode

Further reading

• Odd in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
• odd at OneLook Dictionary Search
• odd in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• DDO, DOD, DoD, dod

Icelandic

Noun

odd

1. indefinite accusative singular of oddur

Middle English

Adjective

odd

1. Alternative form of od

English

Etymology

From Middle English seely, s?l?, from Old English s?li?, ?es?li? (“blessed; fortunate”), from Proto-West Germanic *s?l?g (“blissful, happy”), from *s?li (“happy, fortunate”). Equivalent to seel (“happiness, bliss”) +? -y. Doublet of Seelie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?li/
• Rhymes: -?li
• Homophone: Scilly

Adjective

silly (comparative sillier, superlative silliest)

1. Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance.
   • 1600, William Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's Dream, Act V, Scene i, line 209:

     This is the silliest stuffe, that euer I heard.

   • 1970, Graham Chapman & al., Monty Python's Flying Circus, I, 183:

     Well sir, I have a silly walk and I'd like to obtain a Government grant to help me develop it.

   1. (of numbers, particularly prices) Absurdly large.
      • 1875 June 26, Saturday Review, 815/2:

        He cannot achieve celebrity by covering himself with diamonds... or by giving a silly price for a hack.

2. (chiefly Scotland, obsolete) Blessed, particularly:
   1. Good; pious.
      • a. 1450, Seven Sages, line 1361:

        The sylyman lay and herde,
        And hys wyf answerd.

   2. Holy.
      • 1650 in 1885, W. Cramond, Church of Rathven, 21:

        ... thrie Saturdayes befor Lambas and thrie efter called the six silie Saturdayes.

3. (now chiefly Scotland and Northern England, rare) Pitiful, inspiring compassion, particularly:
   • 1556 in 1880, William Henry Turner, Selections from the Records of the City of Oxford... 1509–83, 246:

     The fire raging upon the silly Carcase.
   1. (now literary) Innocent; suffering undeservedly, especially as an epithet of lambs and sheep.
      • a. 1475, in 1925, Rossell Hope Robbins, Secular Lyrics of the 14th & 15th Centuries, 109:

        There is no best in þe word, I wene...
        That suffuris halfe so myche tene
        As doth þe sylly wat.

      • a. 1513, William Dunbar, Poems, 247:

        In the silly lambis skin He crap als far as he micht win.

   2. (now literary) Helpless, defenseless.

      scared silly

      • 1539, Richard Morison translating Juan Luis Vives, Introduction to Wysedome:

        Wherfore Christe must soo moche the more instantelye be sought vpon, that he may vouchsafe to defende vs sylly wretches.

      • 1665, Thomas Manley translating Hugo Grotius, De Rebus Belgicis, 938:

        There remained fresh Examples of their Barbarism against weak Sea-men, and silly Fisher-men.

   3. Insignificant, worthless, (chiefly Scotland) especially with regard to land quality.
      • a. 1500, Robert Henryson translating Aesop, "Two Mice":

        Ane sillie scheill vnder ane erdfast stane

      • 1595, William Shakespeare, The third Part of King Henry the Sixt, vvith the death of the Duke of Yorke, Act III, Scene iii, line 93:

        ...A pettigree
        Of threescore and two yeares a sillie time,
        To make prescription for a kingdomes worth.

      • 1907, Transactions of the Highland & Agricultural Society, 19, 172:

        It is naturally very poor, ‘silly’ land.

   4. Weak, frail; flimsy (use concerning people and animals is now obsolete).
      • 1567, John Maplet, A Greene Forest:

        Here we see that a smal sillie Bird knoweth how to match with so great a Beast.

      • 1587, Philip Sidney & al. translating Philippe de Mornay, A Woorke Concerning the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion, xxxii, 596:

        [Christ] leaueth neither Children nor kinsfolke behind him to vphold his sillie kingdome.

      • 1946 in 1971, Scottish National Dictionary, Vol. VIII, 234/3:

        That'll never grow. It's ower silly.

   5. Sickly; feeble; infirm.
      • 1636, Alexander Montgomerie, The Cherrie & the Slae, line 1512:

        To doe the thing we can
        To please...
        This silly sickly man.

      • 1818, Walter Scott, "Heart of Mid-Lothian", v:

        Is there ony thing you would particularly fancy, as your health seems but silly?

4. (now rural Britain, rare) Simple, plain, particularly:
   1. Rustic, homely.
      • 1570, John Foxe, Actes & Monumentes, Vol. II, 926/1:

        Dauid had no more but a sylie slynge, and a few stones.

   2. (obsolete) Lowly, of humble station.
      • a. 1547, the Earl of Surrey translating Publius Virgilius Maro, Certain Bokes of Virgiles Aeneis, Book II:

        The silly herdman all astonnied standes.

      • 1568, Alexander Scott, Poems, 27:

        So luvaris lair no leid suld lak,
        A lord to lufe a silly lass.

5. Mentally simple, foolish, particularly:
   1. (obsolete) Rustic, uneducated, unlearned.
      • 1687, Archibald Lovell translating Jean de Thévenot, The Travels of Monsieur de Thevenot into the Levant, i, 2:

        From Hell (of which the silly people of the Country think the top of this hill to be the mouth).

   2. Thoughtless, lacking judgment.
      • 1576, Abraham Fleming translating Sulpicius, A Panoplie of Epistles, 24:

        Wee sillie soules, take the matter too too heauily.

      • 1841, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge, iii, 252:

        ‘Heaven help this silly fellow,’ murmured the perplexed locksmith.

      • 1972, George Lucas & al., American Graffiti, 8:

        Steve, don't be silly. I mean social intercourse.

      • 1990, House of Cards, Season 1, Episode 3:

        Framed? Framed? Oh, grow up, Mattie. The truth is that everyone is sillier than you could possibly imagine they'd be. What a dickhead.

   3. (Scotland) Mentally retarded.
      • 1568, Christis Kirk on Grene:

        Fow ?ellow ?ellow wes hir heid bot scho of lufe wes sillie.

      • 1814, Walter Scott, Waverley, III, xvi, 237:

        Davie's no just like other folk... but he's no sae silly as folk tak him for.

   4. Stupefied, senseless; stunned or dazed.
      • 1829 January 17, Lancaster Gazette:

        You say you were knocked silly—was that so?

      • 1907, John Millington Synge, Playboy of the Western World, iii, 64:

        Drinking myself silly...

      • 1942, J. Chodorov & al., Junior Miss, ii, i, 113:

        Well, Judy, now that you've scared me silly, what's so important?

      • 1990, House of Cards, Season 1, Episode 2:

        I can kick this stuff any time I like. I tell you what. Get this week over, we'll go to a health farm for ten days. No drugs. No drink. And shag ourselves silly. How about that?

6. (cricket, of a fielding position) Very close to the batsman, facing the bowler; closer than short.
   • 1862 July 4, Notts. Guardian:

     Carpenter now placed himself at silly-point for Grundy, who was playing very forward.

Usage notes

Silly is usually taken to imply a less serious degree of foolishness, mental impairment, or hilarity than its synonyms.

The sense meaning stupefied is usually restricted to times when silly is used as a verb complement, denoting that the action is done so severely or repetitively that it leaves one senseless.

Synonyms

• (playful): charming
• Also see Thesaurus:foolish

Antonyms

• (playful): pious

Derived terms

• (adverb): sillily, silly
• silliness
• silly season

Translations

Adverb

silly (comparative sillier, superlative silliest)

1. (now regional or colloquial) Sillily: in a silly manner.
   • 1731, Colley Cibber, Careless Husband, 7th ed., i, i, 21:

     If you did but see how silly a Man fumbles for an Excuse, when he's a little asham'd of being in Love.

Noun

silly (plural sillies)

1. (colloquial) A silly person.
   • 1807 May, Scots Magazine, 366/1:

     While they, poor sillies, bid good night,
     O' love an' bogles eerie.

2. (endearing, gently derogatory) A term of address.
   • 1918 September, St. Nicholas, 972/2:

     ‘Come on, silly,’ said Nannie.

3. (colloquial) A mistake.

Translations

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, ""silly, adj., n., and adv.", 2013.

Anagrams

• silyl, slily, yills