William Gifford
Did you know?
The oddballs among us are likely familiar with zany as an adjective, meaning "eccentric." But did you know the word originated as a noun—one that has withstood the test of time? Zanies have been theatrical buffoons since the heyday of the Italian commedia dell’arte, in which a "zanni" was a stock servant character, often an intelligent and proud valet with abundant common sense and a love of practical jokes. Zanni comes from a dialect nickname for Giovanni, the Italian form of John. The character quickly spread throughout European theater circles, inspiring such familiar characters as Pierrot and Harlequin, and by the late 1500s an anglicized version of the noun zany was introduced to English. The adjective appeared within decades, and eventually both adopted more general meanings to refer to or describe those of us who are quipsters and weirdos.
Synonyms
Adjective
- absurd
- asinine
- balmy
- brainless
- bubbleheaded
- cockeyed
- crackpot
- crazy
- cuckoo
- daffy
- daft
- dippy
- dotty
- fatuous
- featherheaded
- fool
- foolish
- half-baked
- half-witted
- harebrained
- inept
- insane
- jerky
- kooky
- kookie
- loony
- looney
- lunatic
- lunkheaded
- mad
- nonsensical
- nutty
- preposterous
- sappy
- screwball
- senseless
- silly
- simpleminded
- stupid
- tomfool
- unwise
- wacky
- whacky
- weak-minded
- witless
Noun
Examples of zany in a Sentence
EW.com, 27 Nov. 2024
Watch on Deadline Three new crewmembers — an elderly farmer Kele (David Fane), a zany engineer Loto (Rose Matafeo) and, a scholarly scribe Moni (Hualālai Chung) — provide more room for humorous interactions, musical or otherwise.
—Dessi Gomez, Deadline, 26 Nov. 2024
Jim Abrahams, the writer-director who with brothers Jerry and David Zucker turned the comedy genre on its ear with such zany efforts as Airplane!, Police Squad!
—Chris Koseluk, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 Nov. 2024
Along with Ryder and Keaton, original star Catherine O’Hara also returns in the zany supernatural follow-up.
—Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 4 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for zany 
Dictionary Entries Near zany
Cite this Entry
“Zany.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zany. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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zany
2 of 2 adjective
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