Words at Play : Top 10 Sophisticated Insults
Definition:
silly or stupid: complacently or inanely foolish
Example:
"Assuming that everyone has parents who could or would bankroll a life in NYC or SF is fatuous." – Kelly Williams Brown, Jezebel.com, July 13, 2013
About the Word:
Long ago, fatuous meant "illusory," after ignis fatuus, the strange light (literally "foolish fire") that sometimes appears at night over marshy ground. The word's Latin root – the fatuus we see in ingis fatuus – is also behind the word infatuate, which once meant "to make foolish," but which now usually means "to inspire with foolish love or admiration."
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