airy-fairy
not practical or not based on reality
TRANSLATION
airy-fairy = versponnen, wunderlich, abgehoben --- GOOGLE INDEX airy-fairy: approximately 130,000 hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
The United Nations Security Council is meant for grown-up stuff involving bombs and bullets, not AIRY-FAIRY talk about trees and polar bears.
(The Guardian)
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"You are talking about some AIRY-FAIRY concept, which will never come in my lifetime."
- former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
(The Guardian)
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"You are talking about some AIRY-FAIRY concept, which will never come in my lifetime."
- former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Did you
know?
airy-fairy
adjective phrase
- foolishly idealistic and vague
(Compact Oxford English Dictionary)
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WORD ORIGIN
The origin of this so-called reduplicate phrase is unknown. By itself, airy means among other things "showing a lack of worry or serious thought" (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary).
A fairy is an imaginary creature with wings. Combining the two words emphasises that something is not serious and not based on reality. The fact that the two words also rhyme gives the phrase an added flair.
The great British poet Alfred Tennyson, much of whose verse was based on classic mythology, used airy-fairy in an 1830 poem titled "Lilian":
Airy, Fairy Lilian,
Flitting, fairy Lilian,
When I ask her if she love me,
Claps her tiny hands above me,
Laughing all she can;
She'll not tell me if she love me,
Cruel little Lilian.
We can't be sure what Tennyson had in mind when he described Lilian as airy-fairy. But he would surely be amused to see that the phrase is still in use after more than nearly two centuries.
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SYNONYMS
blue-sky, half-baked, impractical, improbable, nonsensical, not applicable, quixotic, romantic, silly, starry-eyed, theoretical, unreal, unrealistic, unworkable
related nouns: pipe dream, ivory tower
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ANTONYMS
believable, practical, pragmatic, realistic
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SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"Don't dismiss airy-fairy ideas as a waste of time, all great innovations start that way."
adjective phrase
- foolishly idealistic and vague
(Compact Oxford English Dictionary)
---
WORD ORIGIN
The origin of this so-called reduplicate phrase is unknown. By itself, airy means among other things "showing a lack of worry or serious thought" (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary).
A fairy is an imaginary creature with wings. Combining the two words emphasises that something is not serious and not based on reality. The fact that the two words also rhyme gives the phrase an added flair.
The great British poet Alfred Tennyson, much of whose verse was based on classic mythology, used airy-fairy in an 1830 poem titled "Lilian":
Airy, Fairy Lilian,
Flitting, fairy Lilian,
When I ask her if she love me,
Claps her tiny hands above me,
Laughing all she can;
She'll not tell me if she love me,
Cruel little Lilian.
We can't be sure what Tennyson had in mind when he described Lilian as airy-fairy. But he would surely be amused to see that the phrase is still in use after more than nearly two centuries.
---
SYNONYMS
blue-sky, half-baked, impractical, improbable, nonsensical, not applicable, quixotic, romantic, silly, starry-eyed, theoretical, unreal, unrealistic, unworkable
related nouns: pipe dream, ivory tower
---
ANTONYMS
believable, practical, pragmatic, realistic
---
SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"Don't dismiss airy-fairy ideas as a waste of time, all great innovations start that way."
