My husband and I, when were were still courting, had many a conversation about the word giddy.
gid·dy [gid-ee] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation adjective, -di·er, -di·est, verb, -died, -dy·ing.
–adjective
1. affected with vertigo; dizzy.
2. attended with or causing dizziness: a giddy climb.
3. frivolous and lighthearted; impulsive; flighty: a giddy young person.
–verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
4. to make or become giddy.[Origin: bef. 1000; ME gidy, OE gidig mad (as var. of *gydig), deriv. of god God, presumably orig. “possessed by a divine being”]
Neither one of us can remember exactly what the point of those talks were, but they were memorable. He pasted the definition from a 100-year-old on the envelope of one of the letters he sent me. Perhaps he was unhappy I wasn’t falling down in love.
A new television advertisement, from the Arkansas state tourism department, claims vacationing in Arkansas will make people giddy, among other love-at-first-sight characteristics. Kind of a funny use of the word.
Come to Arkansas and fall in love!
Seriously, this use of the word makes me less than giddy. Use of good words (and giddy is certainly that) would normally make me happy, but this doesn’t. It’s absurd. Maybe the state’s trying to jump on the oddvertising bandwagon?
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