Addled Definition

Origin of Addled

• 1712, from addle (“urine, liquid filth"), from Old English adela (“mud, mire, liquid manure"), cognate with Old Swedish adel (“urine"), Middle Low German adel, Dutch aal (“puddle"). Used in noun phrase addle egg (mid-13c.) "egg that does not hatch, rotten egg," lit. "urine egg," a loan translation of Latin ovum urinum, which is itself an erroneous loan translation of Ancient Greek οὔριον ᾠόν (ourion oon, “putrid egg"), lit. "wind egg," from οὔριος (ourios, “of the wind"), from οὖρος (ouros, “fair wind") (confused by Roman writers with οὔριος (ourios, “of urine"), from οὖρον (ouron, “urine")). Because of this usage, the noun in English was taken as an adj. from c. 1600, meaning "putrid,

  From Wiktionary