[gid-ee] 
adjective, -di⋅er, -di⋅est, verb, -died, -dy⋅ing.| 1. | affected with vertigo; dizzy. |
| 2. | attended with or causing dizziness: a giddy climb. |
| 3. | frivolous and lighthearted; impulsive; flighty: a giddy young person. |
| 4. | to make or become giddy. |
| gid·dy (gĭd'ē) adj. gid·di·er, gid·di·est
To become or make giddy. [Middle English gidi, crazy, from Old English gidig; see gheu(ə)- in Indo-European roots.] gid'di·ly adv., gid'di·ness n. Synonyms: These adjectives mean producing a sensation of whirling and a tendency to fall: a giddy precipice; a dizzy pinnacle; a vertiginous height. Word History: The word giddy refers to fairly lightweight experiences or situations, but at one time it had to do with profundities. Giddy can be traced back to the same Germanic root *gud- that has given us the word God. The Germanic word *gudigaz formed on this root meant "possessed by a god." Such possession can be a rather unbalancing experience, and so it is not surprising that the Old English descendant of *gudigaz, gidig, meant "mad, possessed by an evil spirit," or that the Middle English development of gidig, gidi, meant the same thing, as well as "foolish; mad (used of an animal); dizzy; uncertain, unstable." Our sense "lighthearted, frivolous" represents the ultimate secularization of giddy. |
