Fatuous

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈfæt.ju.əs/

Definitions

  1. Lacking intelligence or showing a foolish lack of awareness about obvious facts
  2. Devoid of meaningful substance or serious thought, marked by empty-headed and self-satisfied stupidity
  3. Characterized by shallow reasoning and oblivious self-assurance that betrays a complete absence of intellectual depth

Etymology: To a Roman, a beet could be foolish. The poet Martial used "fatuae" for the bland beets that labourers ate at lunch, because Latin "fatuus" covered both the silly and the tasteless. A fatuous remark and an unseasoned vegetable had the same flaw: nothing in them. Where "fatuus" itself came from is unknown. The Romans had their own theory. Faunus, the old rustic god of prophecy, had a partner sometimes called Fatua, and the historian Justin tells how she foretold the future as if in a frenzy, so that people seized by inspiration were said to be "fatuari." In that story the fool and the prophet were close cousins, both talking without quite owning their words. English took the word straight from Latin, and its relatives arrived first. "Infatuate" appeared in the 1530s, and at first it meant simply to make a fool of someone; God was said to infatuate the plans of the wicked. Only later did it narrow to the particular foolishness of being smitten. By the later 1500s English writers had also borrowed the Medieval Latin "ignis fatuus," "foolish fire," for the pale lights that float over marshes at night and lure travellers into the bog. It became a standard image for any delusion that leads people astray. The adjective itself was in English by about 1600, meaning silly or empty-headed. Over the following centuries it took on a sharper edge. To call a smile, a speech or a person fatuous now means more than stupid: it means stupid and pleased about it, foolishness that does not notice itself. Martial's insipid beet was never smug, but the word kept its sense of emptiness and added the self-satisfaction that so often fills the gap.

Synonyms: foolish, silly, absurd, ridiculous, inane

Antonyms: intelligent, wise, sensible, smart, thoughtful