Other forms: funniest, funnier
Funny means it makes people laugh. A joke that lands, a dog falling off the sofa, the friend who can tell any story and have the whole table in tears.
There is a second funny that has nothing to do with laughing: strange, odd, not quite right. A funny smell in the hallway, a funny noise from the engine, and I feel a bit funny, which means unwell. The two meanings collide so regularly that English has a repair phrase for it — funny ha-ha or funny peculiar? Applied to a person it can go either way, and only the situation decides. The comparative forms are funnier and funniest, and the flat sentence that's not funny is a warning rather than a review.
1adjectivefunnyMaking people laugh.
“His story about the airport is the funniest thing I have heard all year.”
2adjectivestrangeStrange, odd or hard to explain.
“There is a funny mark on the ceiling above the bath.”
3adjectiveslightlySlightly unwell or dizzy.
“I came over all funny when I stood up too fast.”
4adjectivesuspiciousSuspicious or dishonest.
“The accounts look funny to me.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Middle English
fonne
English
fun
English, today
funny
Built from
From fun + -y. fun comes from Middle English fonne, fon (“foolish, simple, silly”) or fonnen (“make a fool of”), from Middle English fonne (“a fool, dupe”), probably of gmq - origin, related to Swedish fånig (“foolish”), Swedish fåne (“a fool”), from Old Norse fáni (“vain person, swaggerer”), but of unknown ultimate origin. Perhaps related to or influenced by fjäll (“rock, cliff, mountain”). Compare also English fumble, Norwegian Nynorsk fomme (“clumsy fool”). Compare also Norwegian fomme, fume (“a fool”). More at fon, fond. As a noun, fun is recorded from 1700, with a meaning “a cheat, trick, hoax”, from a verb fun meaning “to cheat, trick” (1680s). The meaning “diversion, amusement” dates to the 1720s. The older meaning is preserved in the phrase to make fun of (1737) and in usage of the adjective funny. The use of fun as adjective is newest and is due to reanalysis of the noun; this was incipient in the mid-19th century.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA