RALPH: The story of the word “addle” begins with the fact that sometimes hens lay eggs whose shells are so thin that the eggs break apart before the chicks can hatch.

SARAH: 2,500 years ago the ancient Greeks called these wind eggs, presumably because the shells were as insubstantial as the wind.

RALPH: The ancient Greek word for wind, ourios, was similar to the word for urine, and some early Romans mistranslated the phrase into latin as urine eggs. Not exactly appetizing.

SARAH: This latin term then got translated into English as adele eggs.

RALPH: Around Shakespeare’s time, the word started to be used figuratively. Adele eggs were useless—since they didn’t hatch—so a useless brain was called an adele, or adeled brain.

SARAH: And that’s how we use the word today: Someone who is addled is confused or unable to think clearly.