addled
pronunciation
How to pronounce addled in British English:
UK [ˈædld]
How to pronounce addled in American English:
US [ ˈædld]
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- Adjective:
- (of eggs) no longer edible
- confused and vague; used especially of thinking
Word Origin
- addled
- addled: [13] Addled may be traceable back ultimately to a confusion between ‘wind’ and ‘urine’ in Latin. In Middle English the term was adel eye ‘addled egg’. of which the first part derived from Old English adela ‘foul-smelling urine or liquid manure’. It seems possible that this may be a loan-translation of the Latin term for ‘addled egg’, ōvum ūrīnae, literally ‘urine egg’. This in turn was an alteration, by folk etymology, of ōvum ūrīnum, a partial loantranslation of Greek oúrion ōón, literally ‘wind egg’ (a wind egg is an imperfect or addled egg).
Example
- 1. All that carbon dioxide has clearly addled his thinking .
- 2. Her brain was being addled by the conflicting arguments .
- 3. I think my brain 's been addled by the heat !
- 4. This actress has addled your brains !
- 5. More than half the eggs are addled .