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Webster 1828 Edition

Addled

AD'DLED

,
Adj.
Morbid, corrupt, putrid, or barren.

Definition 2024

addled

addled

English

Verb

addled

  1. simple past tense and past participle of addle

Adjective

addled ‎(comparative more addled, superlative most addled)

  1. (of eggs) Bad, rotten; inviable, containing a dead embryo.
  2. Confused; mixed up.
  3. (obsolete) Morbid, corrupt, putrid, or barren. [1]

Translations

References

  1. ↑ Webster’s Dictionary 1828 edition

Etymology

1712, from addle ‎(“urine, liquid filth”), from Old English adela ‎(“mud, mire, liquid manure”), cognate with Old Swedish adel ‎(“urine”), Middle Low German adel, Dutch aal ‎(“manure”). Used in noun phrase addle egg (mid-13c.) “egg that does not hatch, rotten egg”, lit. “urine egg”, a loan translation of Latin ovum urinum, which is itself an erroneous loan translation of Ancient Greek οὔριον ᾠόν ‎(oúrion ōión, “putrid egg”), lit. “wind egg”, from οὔριος ‎(oúrios, “of the wind”), from οὖρος ‎(oûros, “fair wind”) (confused by Roman writers with οὔριος ‎(oúrios, “of urine”), from οὖρον ‎(oûron, “urine”)). Because of this usage, the noun in English was taken as an adj. from c. 1600, meaning “putrid”.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈæ.dəld/

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