folehardy
Middle English
FWOTD – 9 December 2017
Alternative forms
- fole-hardy, fole hardy, folehardye, fole-hardye, fole hardye, folehardi, fole-hardi, fole hardi, foolhardy, fool-hardy, fool hardy, foolhardi, fool-hardi, fool hardi, foole hardi, folherdi, fulhardy, ffoul hardy, foule hardy, fuyll hardy
Etymology
From Old French fol hardi (“foolishly bold”), from Old French fol (“foolish, silly; insane, mad”) (from Latin follis (“bellows; purse, sack; inflated ball; belly, paunch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell”)) + Old French hardi (“durable, hardy, tough”) (past tense of hardir (“to harden”), from the unattested Frankish *hardijan, from Proto-Germanic *harduz (“hard; brave”)). Equivalent to fole + hardy.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈfoːlˌhardiː/
Adjective
folehardy
- Marked by unthinking recklessness with disregard for danger; boldly rash; hotheaded, foolhardy.
- 1330, Sir Orfeo
- Y no fond neuer so folehardi man, Þat hider to ous durst wende.
- 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Monkes Prologue”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], OCLC 230972125; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, OCLC 932884868, folio lxxxix, verso, column 1:
- This is my lyfe, but yf that I wold fight / And out at dore, anon I mote me dight/ And els I am loſt, but yf that I / Belyke a wylde lyon, fole hardy
- (please add an English translation of this quote)
- 1330, Sir Orfeo
Descendants
- English: foolhardy
References
- “fol-hardi, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 21 June 2018.