Folly sb.¹

Pl. follies. Forms: 3–5 foli(e, 3–6 foly(e, (4 fole, folle, fowlye), 5 fooly, 6–7 follie, 9 south. volly, 5– folly. [a. OF. and Fr. folie, f. fol, fou foolish, mad (see FOOL); corresponding to Pr. folia, follia, folhia, OSp. folia, It. follia.]

  1.  The quality or state of being foolish or deficient in understanding; want of good sense, weakness or derangement of mind; also, unwise conduct. † To do folly: to act foolishly. (Fond, etc.) to a folly, to an absurd degree.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 52. Te wise ouh to uolewen wisdom, & nout folie.

c. 1330.  Amis and Amiloun, 1982.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, I. 344. To fenyhe foly quhile is wyt.

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 212ú3. Þan it is folie for to lete him blood or ȝeue him ony medicyn laxatif, saue take þe cure oonly in goddis hand.

1477.  Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 127. To loue sapience, and to hate fooly, nat to be aschamed to lerne.

a. 1533.  Ld. Berners, Huon, lxvi. 228. We haue done grete foly to departe or it be day lyght.

1651.  Sir E. Nicholas, in The Nicholas Papers (Camden), I. 248. Sir Thomas Gardner will be ruined by his daughter’s folly…. And to adde madnes to the folly, upon the newes of his mans knavery she bemoanes herselfe of her great mishap.

1742.  Gray, Ode Prospect Eton Coll., 97.

1766.  Goldsm., Vic. W., xxiv.

1778.  Franklin, Lett., 3 Sept., Wks. 1889, VI. 206. I was fond to a folly of our British connections, and it was with infinite regret that I saw the necessity you would force us into of breaking it.

1784.  Laura & Augustus, I. 81. The people are hospitable to a folly.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 98, Laws, Introduction. The folly of mammas and nurses believes that the left hand is by nature different from the right, whereas the left leg and foot are acknowledged to be the same as the right.

  b.  personified.

1594.  H. Willobie, in Shaks. C. Praise, 15.

1632.  Milton, Penseroso,

1728.  Pope, The Dunciad, II. 418.

  c.  With a and pl. An example of foolishness; a foolish action, error, idea, practice, etc.; a ridiculous thing, an absurdity.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 4123 (Cott.).

13[?].  Coer de L., 4760.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, i. 21. The kynge Charlemagne, your father, hath enterprised a great foly.

a. 1533.  Ld. Berners, Huon, xcv. 308. They knew well it was but a folye to folow me, syn I was mountyd on themperours good horse.

1648.  Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 255. The celebrated follies of Bartholomew Fair.

1725.  Watts, Logic, II. v. § 4. Sometimes the Mistakes, Imprudences and Follies, which our selves or others have been guilty of, give us brighter and more effectual Lessons of Prudence, than the wisest Counsels, and the fairest Examples could ever have done.

1773.  Goldsm., She Stoops to Conquer, I. i. 49. In my time, the follies of the town crept slowly among us, but now they travel faster than a stage-coach.

1832.  Ht. Martineau, Life in Wilds, vi. 72. Unless I have more help, I shall never get a roof over our heads before the rains come. ’Tis a folly to expect it.

  † 2.  Wickedness, evil, mischief, harm. Obs.

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 30/36. He heold him faste in his folie.

1303.  R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 4119. He dede no man folye.

c. 1340.  Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 357.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, iii. 80. Ye shall haue no leiser for to repente you of the folie that ye doo.

1535.  Coverdale, Josh. vii. 15. Because he hath gone beyonde the couenaunt of the Lorde, and committed folye in Israel.

  † b.  With a and pl. A wrong-doing, sin, crime.

c. 1250.  Meid. Maregrete, 1. Olde ant yonge i prei ou oure folies for to lete.

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. XVII. 135. Hit [pouerte] defendeþ þe flessh · fro folyes ful menye.

1535.  Coverdale, Judg. xx. 6. They haue done an abhominacion and folye in Israel.

  † 3.  Lewdness, wantonness. Cf. Fr. folie. Obs.

1303.  R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 2961. Ȝyf þou to foly wuldest here wynne.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (1839), iv. 24. A comoun woman, that dwelled there to resceyve men to folye.

a. 1450.  Knt. de la Tour (1868), 76. The quene caste her loke upon Ioseph, and beganne to desire to haue hym to foly with her.

1567.  Fenton, Trag. Disc., A a vij. Neyther hadd age so altered her complexion but there appered follie in all partes of her face.

1604.  Shaks., Oth., V. ii. 132. Oth. She turn’d to folly: and she was a whore.

1634.  Canne, Necess. Separ. (1849), 291. They are much like to one which calls a woman, ‘Whore, whore,’ and lieth with her all the while in the bed, and commits folly with her.

  b.  With a and pl. A lewd action or desire.

c. 1305.  Miracle St. James, 3, in E. E. P. (1862), 57.

c. 1320.  Sir Tristr., 2181.

1603.  Shaks., Meas. for M., III. i. 90.

  † 4.  Madness, insanity, mania (= F. folie); hence, rage, anger. Obs.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 1957. He frothet for folle, and his face chaunget.

1670.  Lassels, Voy. Italy, II. 212. I went to the Pazzorella, where they keep madmen and fools; and saw there strange variety of humours in folly: yet I was pleased to see with what charity and care those poor men were tended there.

  5.  A popular name for any costly structure considered to have shown folly in the builder.

  R. Wendover says that when (in 1228) a castle which Hubert de Burgh had begun to build, near the Welsh border, had to be razed to the ground on account of a treaty concluded with the Welsh, much amusement was excited by the recollection that Hubert had given to the building on its foundation the name of ‘Hubert’s Folly’ (Stultitiam Huberti). It was remarked that he had shown himself a true prophet. Probably the word used by Hubert was F. folie; the original meaning seems to have been not stultitia, but ‘delight,’ ‘favorite abode.’ Many houses in France still bear the name La Folie, and there is some evidence that ‘the Folly’ was as late as the present century used in some parts of England for a public pleasure-garden or the like.

1654.  R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 502. [He] buryeth it [his wealth] as fast in Buildings needlesse, vain, or ill contrived, that stay but the finishing, and being called by his kind Gossip-neighbours, his Folly.

1772.  R. Graves, Spirit. Quixote, III. IX. vii. As they walked on, they saw an object, amidst the woods, on the edge of the hill; which, upon enquiry, they were told was called, ‘Shenstone’s Folly.’

1796.  Monthly Mag., I. Feb., 20/1. I built a great many mounds in the form of sugar-loaves, very broad at bottom and pointed at top…. Travellers call them my folly.

1801.  Coxe, Tour Monmouthsh., I. 121. Hence it was called Kemeys Folly, and perhaps has given a general appellation to buildings of this kind, which are placed on a commanding eminence.

1885.  W. H. Russell, The Prince of Wales at Sandringham, in Harper’s Mag., LXX. April, 752/1. ‘The Heights,’ on which the Folly is built.

  6.  Comb., as folly-blind, -drenched, † -fallen, -painting, -stricken adjs.

1597.  Middleton, Paraphr. Wisd. Sol., ix. 6.

1601.  Shaks., Twef. N., III. i. 75.

1638–48.  G. Daniel, Eclog., III. 307.

1726–46.  Thomson, Winter, 617.

1807.  Syd. Smith, Wks. (1859), I. 80/2. The mournful and folly-stricken blockhead forgets that his toe cannot survive him!

  Hence Folly v. intr., to commit folly, to act foolishly. Follying vbl. sb. also attrib.

1818.  Keats, Endymion, I. 611.

1822.  B. Cornwall, Ludovico Sforza, I. 95.