foolhardy
/ˈfulˌhɑɹdi/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.57 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Marked by unthinking recklessness with disregard for danger; boldly rash; hotheaded.
noun
A person who is foolhardy.
Example Sentences
- "The master's pulse stood still, and he stared helplessly. The buzz of study ceased. The pupils wondered if this fool-hardy boy had lost his mind."
- "In the middle distance several foolhardy souls in wet suits were surfing toward some foamy outbursts on the rocky headland; nearer in, a scattering of paddlers was being continually and, it seemed, happily engulfed by explosive waves."
- "It is a reckless, foolhardy leap into the unknown and the prelude, perhaps, to what the existentialist writer Albert Camus described in La chute – a fall from grace, in every conceivable sense."
- "Resentful of the saddle-fast stranger, eight foolhardies return for more adventure."
- "Some foolhardies in the schoolhouse laughed at him then and Griff stuck their heads into toilets, one by one over the next week."
Etymology
From Middle English folehardy, foolhardi, folherdi, from Old French fol hardi (“foolishly bold”), 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 *hartjan, from Proto-Germanic *harduz (“hard; brave”)), equivalent to fool + hardy. Compare fool-bold, fool-large, etc.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈfulˌhɑɹdi/
- British English: /ˈfuːlhɑːdi/
Inflected Forms
foolhardier (comparative)
more foolhardy (comparative)
foolhardiest (superlative)
most foolhardy (superlative)
fool-hardy (alternative)
foolhardies (plural)