In Middle English an "adel eye" was a putrid egg. The stench of such an egg apparently affected the minds of some witty thinkers, who hatched a comparison between the diminished, unsound quality of an "adel" (or "addle") egg and an empty, confused head-or pate. "Your owne imagination, which was no lesse Idle, then your head was addle all that day," wrote one 17th-century wit at play with the words "idle" and "addle." Today, "addle" is often found in combination with words referring to one's noggin, as in "addlepated," "addlebrained," and "addle-headed."