daft

英 [dɑːft] 美 [dæft]

1. 谐音“打发他、打发的”----愚蠢的人是最好打发的。

daft 愚蠢的

来自PIE*dhabh, 匹配，组装，词源同fabric. 原义为温和的，举止得体的，词源同deft. 后词义由温和的讽刺的过渡到笨拙的，愚蠢的。

daft: daft: [13] Daft was not always a term of reproach. It originally meant ‘mild, gentle’, and only in late Middle English slid to ‘stupid’ (in a semantic decline perhaps paralleling that of silly, which started off as ‘happy, blessed’). Middle English dafte corresponds directly to an Old English gedæfte, whose underlying sense seems to have been ‘fit, suitable’ (the sense connection was apparently that mild unassuming people were considered as behaving suitably).

There is no direct evidence of its use with this meaning, but Old English had a verb gedæftan ‘make fit or ready, prepare’ which, together with the Gothic verb gedaban ‘be suitable’, points to its origin in a Germanic base *dab- ‘fit, suitable’. This ties in with the semantic development of deft, a variant of daft, which has moved from a prehistoric ‘fit, suitable’ to ‘skilful’.
=> deft
daft (adj.): Old English gedæfte "gentle, becoming," from Proto-Germanic *gadaftjaz (cognates: Old English daeftan "to put in order, arrange," gedafen "suitable;" Gothic gadaban "to be fit"), from PIE *dhabh- "to fit together" (see fabric). Sense of "mild, well-mannered" (c. 1200) led to that of "dull, awkward" (c. 1300). Further evolution to "foolish" (mid-15c.), "crazy" (1530s) probably was influenced by analogy with daffe "halfwit" (see daffy); the whole group probably has a common origin.

1. I can lose a few pounds without resorting to daft diets.: 我不用疯狂地节食也能减轻几磅。

2. "I found a mermaid."— 'Don't be daft. There's no such thing.': “我发现了一条美人鱼。”——“别说傻话了。哪有那种东西。”