balmy

From balm +‎ -y. Doublet of balsamic.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbɑː.mi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbɑmi/, /ˈbɔmi/, /ˈbɑlmi/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːmi, -ɑːlmi

balmy (comparative balmier, superlative balmiest)

1. Producing balm.
2. Soothing or fragrant.
3. Of weather, mild and pleasant.
   • 1949 March 7, “Pyramid Club Craze Sweeps Nation”, in LIFE‎^[1], volume 26, number 10, →ISSN, page 27:

     The new mass hysteria is known as the Pyramid Club and began—like so many other strange and wonderful notions—somewhere under the balmy skies of California.

4. (informal, US) Foolish; slightly crazy or mad; eccentric.

   Synonym: (UK) barmy

   • 1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act II, page 125:

     I'm going away. He's off his chump, he is. I dont want no balmies teaching me.

     A noun use.

   • 1958 April 1, Roald Dahl, “Parson's Pleasure”, in Esquire‎^[2], page 148:

     'I reckon he's balmy,' Claud said, and Bert grinned darkly, rolling his misty eye slowly round in its socket.

• lamby