I was wondering about the word folly this morning. Are the British the only ones who use it to mean a strange monument or building at the top of a hill? When visiting in both New Zealand and England, I've been taken to look at so-and-so's folly, but I can't recall ever hearing anyone in the US refer to such a structure as a folly. An abomination, yes!

Wordmatic

It seems that two distinctive features of follies is their being decorative and useless.

Looking at the cross references (and external links) for the Wikipedia article just gave me a pleasant half hour or so. I espcially liked Lucy the Elephant, Kasimira's Castle, and the Big Duck. The latter is the origin of an architectural term duck meaning a building in the shape of an everyday object. The site Roadside America has numerous examples of such like. (Also, I've known a few people, like Kasimira above, who were active in the SCA.)

word: As we use the expr, somebody's folly is anything unsuccessful that he has created

Dale, I know about the generic uses of the word, but I was talking about the specific architectural usage that I have only heard in the UK or Commonwealth countries (seems I also heard it in Montreal years ago). The dictionary makes no distinction as to whether it is a Britishism and/or Americanism, but I just never have heard it used that way in the US--and we have plenty of architectural flourishes here that could be called "follies," probably especially in California!

Now as to other gigantic follies, Seward's and Clinton's (the ditch,) they were part of nature.

WM

Word: Sorry I misunderstood as I had never heard the term used exclusively for monuments of that sort and so assumed that you might not be aware that we used the term more generally

Although I believe follies were created and named in the 16th century, most in Britain are typically Victorian constructions of the 19th century. There's a rather charming one called Bettison's tower secreted away in a seaside town not far from my home called Bettison's tower.
Many years ago, I seem to recollect a water tower in Lawrence Mass. when I lived in Massachusetts for a year. So follies should be known to you enlightened Americans. And why not have a Bush tower or a Rumsfeld gazebo, styled as follies?

We have plenty of follies, and weird ones, too, as the Wikipedia entry shows, but you just never hear anyone here say, "Oh, let's go see the folly!" One summer a few years ago a group of us rented a house in Northern Scotland, and one of our group was out hiking one day and came back all excited that he had seen a folly at the top of a nearby hill. That night, after several glasses of wine, we all trundled out and through this little wooded area, up the hillside, to check out "Richard's Folly," Richard being the one who'd seen it. It turned out to be a family grave monument, so not a folly at all. In New Zealand, a friend made a great point of saying "Oh, look over there on the top of the cliff, is a rather famous folly."

Over here, we are much more likely to say, "Let's go check out the milk carton castle." That one I remember from Ohio, where some guy had used milk cartons to make concrete bricks, and had built an entire tiny castle out of them. I believe Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, full of Victorian era mansions, also has a number of follies, and now I'll have to listen carefully to see if anyone ever refers to them as anything but "monuments" or "edifaces."

WM

I'm glad you pointed out that we don't use the word "folly" as the English do. It is such a useful and descriptive word. As mentioned above, here we simply refer to the strange structure, e.g.,"Turn left at the Big Chicken" which is a fried chicken restaurant shaped like a chicken.

As you begin to learn about us you'll discover that there are many eccentricities that the UK and the USA do not share.

Rich: True. If I hadn't learned otherwise, I would have interpreted a folly at the top of the cliff thus: Richcard Klutz often hikes with his mistress to the top of a hill where he thinks they cannot be seen

Thus Richard is not the one who witnesses the liaison but who participates in it

One of Their nephews, however, being aware of the affair, had suggested to his friend, "Oh, let's go see the folly." The other responds, "That's Rich," whereupon they trail the pair in order to get a closer look and watch the lovers in passionate embrace

After returning home the kid tells Mom what they have seen. She keeps it under her hat, to use later as ammunition in potential divorce litigation. But you know how kids are; and so after a time everyone in the neighborhood knows about it

Some voyeurs amongst them even purchase high-power binoculars. During a subsequent tryst, whilst in the front yard weeding, one of them calls to an adjacent neighbor, "Oh, look over there on the top of the cliff, is a rather famous folly."

A common English folly is that of drinking Dudweiser when beer is available.

Or Swiller Lite, Curse, etc

Incidentally I'm led to believe that there actually is a Dudweiser

Such folly that all good conversations about meanings of words eventually come back to...beer!

WM

There is nothing foolish about beer ;-)

Nothing whatever

...unless you drink too much of it?

True, but you could say the same about water

Now, now. Don't be rude about water. It's a fine drink taken in the right spirit.

...or with the right spirit