Foolhardy Folk Circus Arts

Foolhardy

Pronunciation: ful-hah(r)-dee

Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Dangerously adventuresome, recklessly bold, rash.

Notes: Foolhardy is a word that isn't what it seems. The reason, as we will see in the Word History, is that the meaning of hardy has changed recently.

Despite their awkwardness, several dictionaries are willing to allow foolhardily for an adverb and foolhardiness as a noun.

Foolhardiness involves injudicious risk!

Word History: From Old French fol hardi where fol meant "fool" and hardi, "bold, daring", a word that started out as the past participle of hardir "to harden".

This Old French word was borrowed from a Germanic language, for hard is Germanic all the way.

Kor-t-, the root underlying hard, underwent metathesis in Greek, resulting in kratos "strength, power", a root that turns up in democrat and democracy "people power, power by the people".