Word of the Day Archive
Monday August 14, 2006
fatuous \FACH-oo-uhs\
, adjective:
1. Inanely foolish and unintelligent; stupid.
2. Illusory; delusive.
Publishers persist in the fatuous belief that a little hocus-pocus in the front flap blurb will so dazzle readers that they'll be too dazed to notice the quality of what's on the pages inside.
-- "A night in the city", Irish Times, October 7, 1997
No enquiry, however fatuous or ill informed, failed to receive his full attention, nor was any irrelevant personal information treated as less than engrossing.
-- Michael Palin, Hemingway's Chair
A hundred feet or so below him people were milling around, some of them beginning to look up expectantly. Clearing space for him. Even temporarily calling off the wonderful and completely fatuous hunt for Wockets.
-- Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Fatuous comes from Latin fatuus, "foolish, idiotic, silly."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for fatuous
