MUSHYHEADED adjective (muhsh-ee-ned-id)

adjective

1. Informal. inadequately thought out: mushyheaded ideas.
2. Informal. having vague, unsubstantiated, or unrealistic ideas or opinions: a mushyheaded idealist.


Quotes

Hard-headed because it accepts self-interest as the basic human motivator and does not wish it away into what Alinsky considers the mushy-headed idea that people will do good because they believe in the good.
--*Frank Bardacke,*Trampling Out the Vintage, 2011


Though Cotton acknowledges that this might seem elitist, he derides the Federalists’ modern critics as mushy-headed and naive.
--*Molly Ball,*"The Making of a Conservative Superstar," The Atlantic, September 17, 2014



Origin

Mush, cornmeal boiled in water or milk until thick, eaten as a hot cereal, or molded and fried, is originally an Americanism dating back to the late 17th century. A derivative compound, mushhead “a stupid person,” also an Americanism, dates to the mid-19th century; its derivative adjective mush-headed “easily duped, stupid”, dates to the second half of the 19th century. Mushyheaded (or mushy-headed), a variant of mush-headed, dates to the late 20th century.