mad
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Symbol
mad
See also
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Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈmæd/
- (Southern England, Australia) IPA(key): /ˈmæːd/
- (New York City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore) IPA(key): /ˈmɛəd/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -æd
Etymology 1
From Middle English mad, madde, madd, medd, from Old English ġemǣdd, ġemǣded (“enraged”), past participle of ġemǣdan, *mǣdan (“to make insane or foolish”), from Proto-Germanic *maidijaną (“to change; damage; cripple; injure; make mad”), from Proto-Germanic *maidaz ("weak; crippled"; compare Old English gemād (“silly, mad”), Old High German gimeit (“foolish, crazy”), literary German gemeit (“mad, insane”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (gamaiþs, “crippled”)), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- ("to change"; compare Old Irish máel (“bald, dull”), Old Lithuanian ap-maitinti (“to wound”), Sanskrit मेथति (méthati, “he hurts, comes to blows”)).
Adjective
mad (comparative madder, superlative maddest)
- (chiefly British Isles) Insane; crazy, mentally deranged.
- You want to spend $1000 on a pair of shoes? Are you mad?
- He's got this mad idea that he's irresistible to women.
- c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
- I have heard my grandsire say full oft, / Extremity of griefs would make men mad.
- 1920 October, Agatha Christie, “The Arrest”, in The Mysterious Affair at Styles […], New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, published March 1927, page 218:
- Sometimes, I feel sure he is as mad as a hatter; and then, just as he is at his maddest, I find there is method in his madness.
- 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Eden Prime:
- Dr. Manuel: Is it madness to see the future? To see the destruction rushing towards us? To understand there is no escape? No hope? No, I am not mad. I'm the only sane one left!
- (chiefly US; informal in UK and Ireland) Angry, annoyed.
- Are you mad at me?
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 26:11:
- And I punished them oft in euery Synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme, and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them euen vnto strange cities.
- 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
- She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.
- (chiefly in the negative, informal) Used litotically to indicate satisfaction or approval.
- Wow, you really made this pie from scratch? I'm not mad at it.
- (UK, Ireland, informal) Bizarre; incredible.
- It's mad that I got that job back a day after being fired.
- Wildly confused or excited.
- to be mad with terror, lust, or hatred
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 1:88:
- It is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.
- 1787, R. Bage, The Fair Syrian, page 314:
- My brother, quiet as a cat, seems perfectly contented with the internal feelings of his felicity. The Marquis, mad as a kitten, is all in motion to express it, from tongue to heel.
- 2010 May 27, Judy Astley, Blowing It: a brilliantly funny, mad-cap novel guaranteed to make you laugh from bestselling author Judy Astley, Random House, →ISBN, page 287:
- […] at all, just a vast space of desert out in the saltlands of Nevada. It's serious dressing up, the maddest entertainment, craziest art, and at the end there's the burning of a huge effigy, stuffed with pyrotechnics 287.
- Extremely foolish or unwise; irrational; imprudent.
- (colloquial, usually with for or about) Extremely enthusiastic about; crazy about; infatuated with; overcome with desire for.
- Aren't you just mad for that red dress?
- (of animals) Abnormally ferocious or furious; or, rabid, affected with rabies.
- a mad dog
- (slang, chiefly New York, African-American Vernacular) Intensifier, signifying abundance or high quality of a thing; very, much or many.
- I gotta give you mad props for scoring us those tickets.
Their lead guitarist has mad skills.
There are always mad girls at those parties.
- (of a compass needle) Having impaired polarity.
Usage notes
- In Commonwealth countries other than Canada, mad typically implies the insane or crazy sense more so than the angry sense.
- In the United States and Canada, the word mad refers to anger much more often than insanity, but such usage is still considered informal by some speakers and labeled as such even in North American English by most UK dictionaries. This is due to an old campaign (since 1781 by amateur language pundits) to discredit the angry sense of the word that was more effective in the UK and Ireland than in North America. Though not as old as the sense denoting insanity, the sense relating to anger is certainly very old (going back at least to the fourteenth century).[1]
- On the other hand, if one is described as having "went mad" or "gone mad" in North America, this denotes insanity, and not anger. Meanwhile, if one "is mad at" something or has "been mad about" something, it is understood that they are angered rather than insane. In addition, such derivatives as "madness", "madman", "madhouse" and "madly" always denote insanity, irrespective of whether one is in the Commonwealth or in North America.
Synonyms
- (insane): See also Thesaurus:insane
- (angry): See also Thesaurus:angry
- (slang: Intensifier, much): wicked, mighty, kinda, helluv, hella.
Translations
insane (adj.)
|
angry
|
Adverb
mad (not comparable)
- (slang, chiefly New York, African-American Vernacular, UK and Ireland, dialectal) Intensifier; to a large degree; extremely; exceedingly; very; unbelievably.
- He was driving mad slow.
- It's mad hot today.
- He seems mad keen on her.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Terms derived from mad (all parts of speech)
- all over the place like a mad woman's custard
- as mad as a cut snake
- barking mad
- bemad
- big mad
- boiling mad
- drive someone mad
- flaming mad
- hopping mad
- horn-mad
- like hey-go-mad
- like mad
- little mad
- mad-apple
- mad as a bear with a sore head
- mad as a box of frogs
- mad as a brush
- mad as a cut snake
- mad as a fish
- mad as a hatter / mad hatter
- mad as a hornet
- mad as a March hare
- mad as a meat axe
- mad as a mongoose
- mad as a wet hen
- mad as cut snakes
- mad as hops
- madbrain
- madbrained
- mad-cap
- madcap
- Madchester
- mad cow
- mad cow disease
- madden
- madding
- maddish
- maddle
- mad-doctor
- mad-dog
- mad dog
- mad dogs and Englishmen
- mad enough to chew nails
- mad for it
- mad hatter disease
- mad hatter syndrome
- madhead
- mad honey
- madhouse
- mad itch
- Mad King George
- mad lad
- Mad Lib
- madling
- madly
- madman
- mad man
- Mad Max
- mad minute
- mad money
- madness
- mad on
- mad-on
- madperson
- mad professor
- mad props
- mad queen chess
- Mad River
- mad science
- mad scientist
- madsome
- madstone
- mad with it
- madwoman
- madwort
- mald
- malding
- raging mad
- rip-snorting mad
- run mad
- semimad
- spitting mad
- stark raving mad
- stark staring mad
- unmad
Etymology 2
From Middle English madden, from the adjective; compare Old English ġemǣdan.[2]
Verb
mad (third-person singular simple present mads, present participle madding, simple past and past participle madded)
- (obsolete, intransitive) To be or become mad. [14th–19th c.]
- 1832, Tales of the Alhambra, Washington Irving:
- The imperial Elizabetta gazed with surprise at the youthful and unpretending appearance of the little being that had set the world madding.
- (now colloquial US, Jamaica) To madden, to anger, to frustrate. [from 15th c.]
- 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene 5]:
- This musick mads me, let it sound no more.
- 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition I, section 2, member 4, subsection iv:
- He that mads others, if he were so humoured, would be as mad himself, as much grieved and tormented […] .
- 1993 March 22, “Oh Carolina”, in Pure Pleasure, performed by Shaggy (musician):
- Carolina! Whine your body gyal! Make Dem know say you have it fi mad dem
References
- “mā̆dden, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Anagrams
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Etymology 1
From Old Norse matr, from Proto-Germanic *matiz, cognate with Norwegian, Swedish mat (“food”), English meat, German Mett (from Low German).
Pronunciation
Noun
mad c (singular definite maden, not used in plural form)
Declension
More information common gender, Singular ...
Close
Declension of mad
Derived terms
- babymad
- aftensmad
- morgenmad
- natmad
- madglad
Noun
mad c (singular definite madden, plural indefinite madder)
- a slice of bread with something on top.
Usage notes
Very compound-prone; see for example ostemad or pølsemad.
Declension
More information common gender, Singular ...
| common gender |
Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
| nominative | mad | madden | madder | madderne |
| genitive | mads | maddens | madders | maddernes |
Close
Declension of mad
Derived terms
- hurtigmad
- ostemad
- pindemad
- pølsemad
- rugbrødsmad
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Pronunciation
Verb
mad
- imperative of made
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Etymology 1
From Old English ġemǣdd, ġemǣded, the past participle of ġemǣdan.
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
Adjective
mad (plural and weak singular madde, comparative madder, superlative maddyst)
- Mad, insane, deranged; not of sound mind.
- Emotionally overwhelmed; consumed by mood or feelings.
- Perplexed, bewildered; surprised emotionally.
- Irate, rageful; having much anger or fury.
- Idiotic or dumb; badly thought out or conceived
- (rare) Obstinate, incautious, overenthusiastic.
- (rare) Distraught, sad, unhappy.
- (rare) Scatterbrained or absent-minded.
Derived terms
Descendants
References
- “mā̆d, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-03-09.
Etymology 2
Derived from the adjective.
Verb
mad
- Alternative form of madden
Etymology 3
Pronunciation
Verb
mad
- past participle of make
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Pronunciation
Etymology 1
Univerbation of má (“if”) + ba/bid
Verb
mad
For quotations using this term, see Citations:mad.
Etymology 2
A reduced form of maith (“good”).
Adverb
mad
Descendants
Further reading
- Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “mad”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
Mutation
More information radical, lenition ...
| radical | lenition | nasalization |
|---|---|---|
| mad also mmad after a proclitic ending in a vowel |
mad pronounced with /β̃(ʲ)-/ |
unchanged |
Close
Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Old Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.
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Etymology 1
From Pre-Palauan *maða, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *mata, from Proto-Austronesian *maCa.
Noun
mad
- (anatomy) eye (organ), face, facial expression
- front; area, space or time in front of
- Medal a blik. ― In front of my house.
- El mo er a medad. ― In the future (literally, “what extends beyond (in the direction of) our face”)
- aperture, access, entrance
Inflection
More information Singular, Plural ...
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| First | inclusive | medad | |
| exclusive | medak | medemam | |
| Second | medam | medemiu | |
| Third | medal | mederir | |
Close
Etymology 2
From Pre-Palauan *maðe, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *(m-)atay, from Proto-Austronesian *(m-)aCay.
Verb
mad
- to die
References
- mad in Palauan Language Online: Palauan-English Dictionary, at tekinged.com.
- mad in Palauan-English Dictionary, at trussel2.com.
- mad in Lewis S. Josephs, Edwin G. McManus, Masa-aki Emesiochel (1977) Palauan-English Dictionary, University Press of Hawaii, →ISBN, page 139.
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Etymology
From Proto-Brythonic *mad, from Proto-Celtic *matis.
Pronunciation
Adjective
mad (feminine singular mad, plural mad, equative mated, comparative matach, superlative mataf)
Noun
mad m (plural madioedd)
Mutation
More information radical, soft ...
Close
Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.
Etymology
From Middle English mad, from Old English ġemǣdd, ġemǣded (“enraged”).
Pronunciation
Adjective
mad
- mad
- 1927, “YOLA ZONG O BARONY VORTH”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 132, line 4:
- Fan Buckeen hay pooked lik own thing mad.
- When Buckeen he jumped like a thing mad.
References
- Kathleen A. Browne (1927) The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth Series, Vol.17 No.2, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, page 132
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