folly

Etymology 1

verb

1. (dialectal) To follow.
   "Anybody got the makin's?" he said. "That's one hell of a thick bunch of canvas, but I follied the seam." 2002, Richard Kilroy O'Malley, Hobo: A Depression Odyssey, page 104
   Howandever, at the selfsame time, there was a gang of fellas from the valley of kings follying the very same pointy star. And didn't that pointy star point them king-fellas in the direction of Mary's cowstable. 2012, Honor Molloy, Smarty Girl: Dublin Savage, Boston, M.A.: Gemma, page 43

Etymology 2

From Old French folie (“madness”), from the adjective fol (“mad, insane”).

noun

1. Foolishness that results from a lack of foresight or lack of practicality.
   This is a war of folly to continue.
   It'd be folly.
2. Thoughtless action resulting in tragic consequence.
   The purchase of Alaska from Russia was termed Seward's folly.
   Thames Water has become the latest object lesson in the predictable and predicted folly of privatised monopolies, aided by a regulator that’s an even bigger wet wipe than the fatbergs bunging up the sewers. 2023-06-30, Marina Hyde, “The tide is coming in fast on Rishi Sunak – and it’s full of sewage”, in The Guardian
3. (architecture) A fanciful building built for purely ornamental reasons.
   A luncheonette in the shape of a coffee cup is particularly conspicuous, as is intended of an architectural duck or folly.
   It has been a long time since new follies were springing up across the great estates of Britain. But the owners of Doddington Hall, in Lincolnshire, have brought the folly into the 21st century, by building a 30ft pyramid in the grounds of the Elizabethan manor. 7 September 2014, “Doddington's garden pyramid is a folly good show”, in The Daily Telegraph, London
   A great deal of eccentricity was expressed through the trend for ruin follies. But it wasn’t only the madness of paranoid earls and fashionable landowners that was encoded in them. 2018-04-18, Paul Cooper, “Europe Was Once Obsessed With Fake Dilapidated Buildings”, in The Atlantic
4. A pinkish-red color.
   folly: