fol-hardi

Etymology

From Old French fol hardi (“foolishly bold”),^[1] 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”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfoːlˌhɑrdi/

Adjective

fọ̄l-hardī

1. Marked by unthinking recklessness with disregard for danger; boldly rash; hotheaded, foolhardy.
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Monkes Prologue”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], OCLC 230972125; republished as William Thynne, editor, The Woorkes of Geffrey Chaucer, Newly Printed, with Diuers Addicions, which were Neuer in Printe before: With the Siege and Destruccion of the Worthy Citee of Thebes, Compiled by Ihon Lidgate, Monke of Berie. As in the Table More Plainly Dooeth Appere, London: Imprinted at London, by Ihon Kyngston, for Ihon Wight, dwellying in Poules Churchyarde, 1561, OCLC 932919585, folio LXXX, verso, column 1:

     This is my life, but if that I woll fight / And out at dore, anon I mote me dight / And els I am loſte, but if that I / Be like a wilde lion, fole hardy

References