It's April Fool's Day. “Fool” has a delightful history. It came into English from the French
fol (a stupid or silly person) in the Middle Ages. Back then it was not as contemptuous a word as it is now, more a designation of someone who was simple-minded or lacking in judgement. Indeed, it was even used as a term of endearment (I do not recommend trying this now). Its ultimate origin is the Latin
follis (bellows used to pump air into a fire), used in Latin slang to mean a windbag or what we would now call an airhead.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI wonder if that French word was related to the one that designates a crowd ("une folle" ?).
Sadly, I've always felt that words used to designate a "sea" of people would not be flattering ... unfortunately.
There are languages where "crowd" is designated by the simple word "multitude".
The French word for "crowd" is foule. It comes from a Latin word fullare, which means "to full cloth" (i.e. to tread or beat it to clean or thicken it, not related to the adjective "full"). A "foule" is so called because it is a place where everything is squished in, much as cloth is when it's fulled.
ReplyDeleteI see! Thank you very much!
ReplyDeleteWhy is April Fool's Day also written as April Fools' Day?
ReplyDelete