Green’s Dictionary of Slang

feather-headed adj.

scatterbrained.

1600		J. Day Blind Beggar of Bednall-Green Act II: What is the matter with you? so feather-ey’d ye cannot let us passe in the King’s high way?
1647		N. Ward Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America n.p.: Many Gentlemenes . . . estates are deplumed by their featherheaded wives [R].
1701		Cibber Love Makes a Man II i: Thou hast miss’d a Man (that is so bewitch’d to his Study) [...] so far above this feather-headed Puppy.
1768		Cleland Woman of Honor III 194: Billy Grinly, that egrarious feather-headed fop.
1863		G.A. Sala Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous 147: Surely there never did exist so volatile, light-spirited, feather-brained a race as these same Negro Blacks.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 14 Dec. 1/2: [S]ome feather-brained idiot.
1905		N. Gale ‘Doctor Cricket’ in More Cricket Songs 35: Stupid lads debase their worth / In feather-headed Folly’s thicket.
1910		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley Says 156: I can hardly imagine how he stayed feather-headed long enough to take th’ villain’s joolry.
1930		R. McAlmon ‘Blithe Insecurities’ in Knoll McAlmon and the Lost Generation (1976) 43: Pop knows you’re featherbrained.
1956		C.S. Lewis Till We Have Faces 33: She had always been feather-headed and now grew wanton.
1962		R. Hauser Homosexual Society 87: They are quite adult and completely removed in type from the mass of their featherbrained fellow homosexuals or bisexuals.