In the Middle Ages, Thome Fole was a name assigned to those perceived to be of little intelligence. This eventually evolved into the spelling tomfool, which, when capitalized, also referred to a professional clown or a buffoon in a play or pageant. The name Tom seems to have been chosen for its common-man quality, much like Joe Blow for an ordinary person or Johnny Reb for a soldier in the Confederate army, but tomfoolery need not apply strictly to actions by men. In Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables (1908), for example, Marilla Cuthbert complains of Anne: "She's gadding off somewhere with Diana, writing stories or practicing dialogues or some such tomfoolery, and never thinking once about the time or her duties."
There was a lot of tomfoolery going on behind the scenes.
the open bar may have had something to do with the tomfoolery at the wedding reception
Recent Examples on the WebHere's to another round of race weekend tunes and the tomfoolery that accompanies them.—Domenica Bongiovanni, The Indianapolis Star, 21 May 2024 Rob Lowe and his real-life son, John Owen Lowe, are coming back for more onscreen tomfoolery.—Julia Moore, Peoplemag, 6 May 2024 With Drag Race over, what can fans expect to see next from Plane Jane?
More tomfoolery, buffoonery and shenanigans.—Stephen Daw, Billboard, 25 Apr. 2024 Cities love to put their amateur Photoshop skills to work or fire off a social media post for some low-stakes tomfoolery.—Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 1 Apr. 2024 Check out the slideshow above for all of Tesla’s Cybertruck tomfoolery.—Elizabeth Blackstock / Jalopnik, Quartz, 14 Mar. 2024 The tomfoolery — coming just one day after Barrymore spun around her set with her butt in a giant metal mixing bowl — kicked off just a few minutes into the episode during the Drew's News segment.—Dalton Ross, EW.com, 12 Apr. 2023 The props for the tomfooleries are nowhere to be found.—Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harper's Magazine, 9 Dec. 2021 Most of my work is just tomfoolery, but occasionally, I’m called upon for more earnest projects.—Irv Erdos, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Apr. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tomfoolery.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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