folly

     

In architecture, a folly is a builing constructed strictly as a decoration, having none of the usual purposes of housing or sheltering associated with a conventional structure. They originated as decorative accents in parks and estates. "Folly" is used in the sense of fun or light-heartedness, not in the sense of something ill-advised.

Trivia about folly

  • Thomas Gray wrote, "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis" this "to be wise"
  • Erasmus praised it in the title of a 1511 work
  • (Kelly of the Clue Crew reports from New York.) Central Park's Belvedere Castle was designed in 1865 as one of the fanciful Victorian-era structures called by this rather pejorative name
  • Goldsmith rhymed, "When lovely woman stoops to" this, "What charm can soothe her melancholy?"

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