Goofy

How to spell goofy

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce goofy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does goofy mean?

1. adjectiveSilly, foolish, or comically clumsy in a harmless and endearing way.

Goofy in a sentence

• He pulled a goofy face in the holiday photo.

• The puppy had a goofy way of chasing its own tail.

Where does goofy come from?

Language of origin: Other

This is an early twentieth-century American coinage built on the noun 'goof', meaning a foolish or clumsy person. 'Goof' itself most likely traces back to the English dialect word 'goff', meaning a simpleton or fool, which in turn appears to descend from the French 'goffe', meaning awkward or stupid, and ultimately from the Italian 'goffo', carrying the same idea of clumsy foolishness. By adding the common adjective suffix '-y', writers turned the noun into a word describing anyone or anything silly, daffy, or harmlessly absurd. The term gained huge cultural traction when Disney named its cheerful, clumsy cartoon dog Goofy in the 1930s, cementing the word in everyday speech. The spelling is mostly straightforward; the only thing to watch is the doubled 'o', which mirrors the long 'oo' sound and the parent word 'goof'.

How the word is built

• goof (a silly or foolish person)
• -y (adjective suffix: full of, characterised by)