The Foolish History of Dizzy

Hello,

Last week I explored the etymology of giddy and along the way I stumbled onto information about dizzy, so I thought I’d share that one this week.

Dizzy is the way you feel if you spin around too fast or are feeling faint. Unfortunately I had a history of fainting/dizziness so I know that feeling well and stay away from carousels and fast spinning rides in fairgrounds.

Carousel with a rather famous neighbour

Curiously dizzy, somewhat like giddy, has an originally meaning linked to stupidity and foolishness. In Old English the word was dysig and it didn’t meaning anything to do with a light-headed feeling. It came from dusijaz, the Proto Germanic root word behind words for foolishness and dizziness in German and Dutch.

By the time we reach Middle English the spelling had changed to dusie but it’s the 1400s before the meaning of a whirling sensation joins dizzy and the 1500s before it gains the idea of being giddy or thoughtless. Sadly for anybody with fair hair, dizzy (in the foolish sense) is linked to blonde hair in the late 1800s.

There’s also ditzy (or ditsy) too, of course. This one, is used to describe people (particularly women) as being scatterbrained and dates to the 1960s as American English slang but the OED doesn’t appear to link it to dizzy despite the similar spelling. It is guessed to be a variation of African-American dialect dicty (1920s) which means conceited or snobbish but nobody is entirely certain.

Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

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