giddy

English

Etymology

The adjective is derived from Middle English gidi, gedy, gydy (“demonically controlled or possessed; crazy, insane; foolish, idiotic, ridiculous, unwise; unsure; (rare) dizzy, shaky; (rare) of an animal: crazed, out of control; a fool”) , from Old English gidiġ, gydiġ (“possessed by a demon or spirit, insane, mad”), from Proto-West Germanic *gudīg (“ghostly, spirited”, literally “possessed by a god or spirit”), from *god (“god”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰew- (“to pour”), possibly in the sense of a libation made to a deity) + *-ig, *-g (suffix forming adjectives with the senses of being, doing, or having). The English word is analysable as god +‎ -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’, forming adjectives).

The noun and the verb are derived from the adjective.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɪdi/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪdi
• Hyphenation: gid‧dy

Adjective

giddy (comparative giddier, superlative giddiest)

1. (predicative only) Feeling a sense of spinning in the head, causing a perception of unsteadiness and being about to fall down; dizzy.

   Synonyms: fuzzy, fuzzy-headed, fuzzy-minded, light-headed, rattleheaded, (Scotland) shoogly, vertiginate, (Britain, dialectal) westy, woozy

   The man became giddy upon standing up so fast.

   • 1665, Robert Boyle, “Occasional Reflections. Discourse XVIII. Upon a Giddiness Occasion’d by Looking Attentively on a Rapid Stream.”, in [John Weyland], editor, Occasional Reflections upon Several Subjects. With a Discourse about Such Kind of Thoughts, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Alex Ambrose Masson; and sold by John Henry Parker, , published 1848, →OCLC, section IV (Which Treats of Angling Improv’d to Spiritual Uses), page 277:

     [W]hilst I was thus musing, and attentively looking upon the Water, to try whether I could discover the Bottom, it happened to me, as it often does to those that gaze too stedfastly on swift Streams, that my Head began to grow giddy, and my Leggs to stagger towards the River, into which questionless I had fell, if Philaretus had not seasonably and obligingly prevented it.

   • 1865 November (indicated as 1866), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “Pig and Pepper”, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 93:

     I wish you wouldn't keep appearing and vanishing so suddenly: you make one quite giddy.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 7: Aeolus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, , →OCLC, part II , page 141:

     They see the roofs and argue about where the different churches are: Rathmines' blue dome, Adam and Eve's, saint Laurence O'Toole's. But it makes them giddy to look so they pull up their skirts …

   • 2010 April 12, Bruce Kimmel, chapter 6, in “There’s Mel, There’s Woody, and There’s You”: My Life in the Slow Lane, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 143:

     Susan loved to drink wine, and I was not a drinker at all, so I'd just sit there and watch her drink glass after glass and get giddier and giddier.

2. (attributive) Causing or likely to cause dizziness or a feeling of unsteadiness.

   Synonym: vertiginous

   They climbed to a giddy height.

   • c. 1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedy of King Richard the Third.  (First Quarto), London: Valentine Sims for Andrew Wise, , published 1597, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:

     [A]s vve pact along, / Vpon the giddy footing of the hatches: / Me thought that Gloceſter ſtumbled, and in ſtumbling, / Stroke me that thought to ſtay him ouer board, / Into the tumbling billovves of the maine.

   • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, , quarto edition, London: V S for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     VVilt thou vpon the high and giddy maſſe, / Seale vp the ſhip-boies eies, and rocke his braines, […]

   • 1665, Robert Boyle, “Occasional Reflections. Reflection VI. Sitting at East in a Coach that Went Very Fast.”, in [John Weyland], editor, Occasional Reflections upon Several Subjects. With a Discourse about Such Kind of Thoughts, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Alex Ambrose Masson; and sold by John Henry Parker, , published 1848, →OCLC, section I, page 88:

     [A]ll those changes, that are taken for the Giddy turns of Fortune's Wheel, shall serve to approach him the faster to the blest Mansion he would arrive at.

   • 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. , London: T N for Henry Herringman, , published 1676, →OCLC, Act IV, page 56:

     Povv'r like nevv VVine, does your vveak Brain ſurpriſe, / And its mad fumes, in hot diſcourſes, riſe; / But time theſe giddy vapours vvill remove; / Mean vvhile I'll take the ſober joys of Love.

   • 1782, William Cowper, “Hope”, in Poems, London: J Johnson, , →OCLC, page 151:

     From infancy through childhood's giddy maze, / Frovvard at ſchool, and fretful in his plays, / The puny tyrant burns to ſubjugate / The free republic of the vvhip-gig ſtate.

   • 1821, William Hazlitt, “Essay XV. On Paradox and Common-place.”, in Table-Talk; or, Original Essays, volume I, London: John Warren, , →OCLC, page 362:

     [T]hey oscillate, with a giddy and sickening motion, from one absurdity to another, and expiate the follies of youth by the heartless vices of advancing age.

   • 1847, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Woodnotes”, in Poems, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, →OCLC, part I, stanza 3, page 71:

     Low lies the plant to whose creation went / Sweet influence from every element; / Whose living towers the years conspired to build, / Whose giddy top the morning loved to gild.

3. Moving around something or spinning rapidly.
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, , →OCLC, signature G3, verso:

     To ſpoil Antiquities of hammerd ſteele, / And turn the giddy round of Fortunes vvheele.

   • 1720, Homer, [Alexander] Pope, transl., “Book XVIII”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume V, London: W Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott , →OCLC, page 99, lines 695–696:

     So vvhirls a VVheel, in giddy Circle toſt, / And rapid as it runs, the ſingle Spokes are loſt.

   • 1764 December 19 (indicated as 1765), Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller, or A Prospect of Society. A Poem. , London: J Newbery, , →OCLC, page 21:

     There, vvhile above the giddy tempeſt flies, / And all around diſtreſsful yells ariſe, / The penſive exile, bending vvith his vvoe, / To ſtop too fearful, and too faint to go.

   • 1810, Walter Scott, “Canto II. The Island.”, in The Lady of the Lake; , Edinburgh: [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, stanza XXXI, pages 85–86:

     Amid his senses' giddy wheel, / Did he not desperate impulse feel, / Headlong to plunge himself below, / And meet the worst his fears foreshow?— […]

   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Vision of Sin”, in Poems. , volume II, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, page 214:

     As 'twere a hundred-throated nightingale, / The strong tempestuous treble throbb'd and palpitated; / Ran into its giddiest whirl of sound, / Caught the sparkles, and in circles, / Purple gauzes, golden hazes, liquid mazes, / Flung the torrent rainbow round: […]

4. (by extension)
   1. Unable to concentrate or think seriously; easily excited; impulsive; also, lightheartedly silly; frivolous.

      Synonyms: (obsolete) brainsick, changeable, (informal) feather-headed, flighty, (obsolete) giglot, inconsistent, light-headed, (dated) overlight

      • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 106, column 1:

        The Biſhop, and the Duke of Gloſters men, / Forbidden late to carry any VVeapon, / Haue fill'd their Pockets full of peeble ſtones; / And banding themſelues in contrary parts, / Doe pelt ſo faſt at one anothers Pate, / That many haue their giddy braynes knockt out: […]

      • c. 1593–1597, J[ohn] Donne, “ Satyre I”, in Poems, with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: M F for Iohn Marriot, , published 1633, →OCLC, page 325:

        [I]n this ſtanding vvoodden cheſt, / Conſorted vvith theſe fevv bookes, let me lye / In priſon, and here be coffin'd, vvhen I dye; / […] / Here gathering Chroniclers, and by them ſtand / Giddie fantaſtique Poëts of each land.

      • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. , quarto edition, London: V S for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv]:

        [I]n briefe, ſince I doe purpoſe to marrie, I vvill think nothing to anie purpoſe that the vvorld can ſaie againſt it: and therfore neuer flout at me, for vvhat I haue ſaid againſt it: for man is a giddie thing, and this is my concluſion: […]

      • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “VII. Century. [Experiments in Consort Touching the Insecta.]”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. , 3rd edition, London: William Rawley; rinted by J H for William Lee , paragraph 698, page 172, →OCLC:

        It may be Gnats, and Flies, haue their Imagination more mutable and giddy, as Small Birds likevviſe haue.

      • 1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], chapter XXII, in The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: , 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, book II, page 82:

        They ſhall recover the miſattended vvords of Chriſt to the ſincerity of their true ſenſe from manifold contradictions, and ſhall open them vvith the key of charity. […] [M]any they ſhall reclaime from obſcure and giddy ſects, many regain from diſſolute and brutiſh licence, many from deſperate hardnes, if ever that vvere juſtly pleaded.

      • 1682, [Nahum Tate; John Dryden], The Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel. A Poem. , 2nd edition, London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC, page 5:

        Such practices as Theſe, too groſs to lye / Long unobſerv'd by each diſcerning Eye, / The more judicious Iſraelites Unſpell'd, / Though ſtill the Charm the giddy Rabble held, […]

      • 1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], “The Description of a Person Discontented with the Present Government, and Apprehensive of the Loss of Our Liberties”, in The Vicar of Wakefield: , volume I, Salisbury, Wiltshire: B. Collins, for F Newbery, , →OCLC; reprinted London: Elliot Stock, 1885, →OCLC, page 213:

        The tumult in her mind ſeemed not yet abated; ſhe ſaid tvventy giddy things that looked like joy, and then laughed loud at her ovvn vvant of meaning.

      • 1785, William Cowper, “Tirocinium: Or, A Review of Schools”, in The Task, a Poem, , London: J Johnson;  , →OCLC, page 316:

        Young heads are giddy, and young hearts are vvarm, / And make miſtakes for manhood to reform.

      • 1845, B[enjamin] Disraeli, chapter VII, in Sybil; or The Two Nations. , volume III, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, book V, page 92:

        I can't bear her: she sets up to be natural and is only rude; mistakes insolence for innocence; says everything which comes first to her lips and thinks she is gay when she is only giddy.

      • 1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XIII, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC, page 47:

        […] Luard began to perform some trick with an ebony pen-holder of Philip's. "Don't play the giddy ox," said Philip. "You'll only break it."

      1. (dated) Used as an intensifier.
         • 1896, Rudyard Kipling, “[Barrack-Room Ballads.] ‘Soldier an’ Sailor Too’.”, in The Seven Seas, London: Methuen & Co. , →OCLC, page 171:

           'E isn't one o' the reg'lar Line, nor 'e isn't one of the crew. / 'E's a kind of a giddy harumfrodite—soldier an' sailor too!

         • 1899 May, Rudyard Kipling, “The Flag of Their Country”, in Stalky & Co., London: Macmillan & Co., published 1899, →OCLC, page 192:

           I found him pokin' about the place on his own hook afterwards, an' I thought I'd show him the giddy drill. When I found he was so pleased, I wasn't goin' to damp his giddy ardour. He mightn't ha' given me the quid if I had.

         • 1915 August–September, John Buchan, “The Adventure of the Radical Candidate”, in The Thirty-Nine Steps, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, published October 1915, →OCLC, page 97:

           A giddy lot Scudder's friends cared for peace and reform.

   2. Joyfully elated; overcome with excitement or happiness.

      The boy was giddy when he opened his birthday presents.

      • c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice.  (First Quarto), : J Roberts , published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

        I come by note to giue, and to receiue; / Like one of tvvo contending in a prize, / That thinks he hath done vvell in peoples eyes; / Hearing applauſe and vniuerſall ſhout, / Giddy in ſpirit, ſtill gazing in a doubt, / VVhether thoſe pearles of praiſe be his or no.

      • 1767, “Dialogue I. Between Philip and Henry, Concerning the Importance of Early Religion.”, in The Friendly Instructor; or, A Companion for Young Ladies, and Young Gentlemen: , 3rd edition, volume II, London: J. Buckland, , →OCLC, page 4:

        But I vvonder, that either theſe good men, or my mamma ſhou'd think, becauſe they may find it pleaſant vvho are come to maturity of judgment, that ſuch as vve vvho are in the gayeſt and giddyeſt part of life ſhou'd.

      • 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Five. The End of It.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, , →OCLC, page 153:

        "I don't know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings. "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world. Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!"

      • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC, section 1; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

        […] Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophizes all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.

   3. (British, dialectal) Feeling great anger; furious, raging.
5. (British, dialectal, agriculture, veterinary medicine) Of an animal, chiefly a sheep: affected by gid (“a disease caused by parasitic infestation of the brain by tapeworm larvae”), which may result in the animal turning around aimlessly.
6. (obsolete, figuratively) Of a thing, especially a ship: unsteady, as if dizzy.
   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Ceyx and Alcyone”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC, page 368:

     The giddy Ship ran round; the Tempeſt tore / Her Maſt, and over-board the Rudder bore.

   • 1725, Homer, “Book IX”, in [William Broome], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. , volume II, London: Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 195, lines 77–80:

     VVide o'er the vvaſte the rage of Boreas ſvveeps, / And Night ruſh'd headlong on the ſhaded deeps. / Novv here, novv there, the giddy ſhips are born, / And all the rattling ſhrouds in fragments torn.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

giddy (plural giddies) (archaic)

1. Someone or something that is frivolous or impulsive.
   • 1778 September, X. X., “The Observer. Number LVII.”, in The Town and Country Magazine; or, Universal Repository of Knowledge, Instruction, and Entertainment, volume X, London: A Hamilton Jun. ; nd sold by G Robinson, , →OCLC, page 487, column 2:

     But the giddy, the idle, and the frivolous part of the vvorld vvill inceſſantly purſue a phantom, and graſp a ſhadovv.

   • 1838, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter I, in Alice or The Mysteries , volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, , →OCLC, book II, page 125:

     She seemed born not only to captivate the giddy, but to turn the heads of the sage.

2. (British, agriculture, veterinary medicine) Synonym of gid (“a disease caused by parasitic infestation of the brain by tapeworm larvae”)

Translations

Verb

giddy (third-person singular simple present giddies, present participle giddying, simple past and past participle giddied)

1. (transitive) To make (someone or something) dizzy or unsteady; to dizzy.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Ancient Customes”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes , book I, London: Val Simmes for Edward Blount , →OCLC, page 161:

     A nevv faſhion of apparrell creepeth no ſooner into vſe, but preſently he blameth and diſpraiſeth the olde, and that vvith ſo earneſt a reſolution, and vniverſall a conſent, that you vvould ſay, it is ſome kinde of madnes, or ſelfe-fond humor, that giddieth his vnderſtanding.

   • 1634, T[homas] H[erbert], “A Discourse of the Life and Habit of the Persians at this Present”, in A Relation of Some Yeares Travaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, , London: William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC, page 151:

     [T]he footmen vſe it [opium] too as a preſeruer of ſtrength, and vvhich is ſtrangeſt, ſo giddies them, that in a conſtant dreame or dizzineſſe, they run ſleeping not knovving vvhom they meet, and yet miſſe not their intended places: […]

   • 1751, [John Cleland], “Part I”, in Memoirs of a Coxcomb, London: R Griffiths, , →OCLC, page 102:

     And indeed her ovvn little head vvas ſo giddied vvith this vvonderful elevation; […] that had ſhe not really been one of the prettieſt figures that can be imagined, ſhe vvould have been inſufferable.

   • 1865, Ouida [pseudonym; Maria Louise Ramé], “Thalassis! Thalassis!”, in Strathmore: A Romance , volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, , →OCLC, page 275:

     [T]he hiss of the plunging shot deafening their ear and giddying the brain, with life and liberty beyond, and behind a doom more dread than death, they fled on through the heavy, breathless night.

2. (intransitive)
   1. To become dizzy or unsteady.
      • 1981, Nadine Gordimer, July’s People, 1st UK edition, London: Jonathan Cape , →ISBN, page 98:

        Giddied, he gave up a moment's purchase of ground.

   2. (obsolete) To move around something or spin rapidly; to reel; to whirl.

      Synonym: vertiginate

      • 1614–1615, Homer, “The Ninth Book of Homer’s Odysseys”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. , London: Rich Field , for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, , volume I, London: John Russell Smith, , 1857, →OCLC, page 202, lines 132–137:

        [B]y chance, a sudden north-wind fetch'd, / With an extreme sea, quite about again / Our whole endeavours, and our course constrain / To giddy round, and with our bow'd sails greet / Dreadful Maleia, calling back our fleet / As far forth as Cythera.

Derived terms

• giddy up

Translations

References

Further reading

• dizziness on Wikipedia.Wikipedia