Final Craziness
After three craziness posts (March 2, March 9 & March 16), here’s
one more addressing words and terms we use to suggest someone is unhinged. Due
to the abundant number, I’m skipping the word histories. And still, there are
dozens more.
Late 1600s – to be half-baked
1810 – to have a screw loose
1850s – to be off one’s chump
Late 1800s – to be off one’s base,
Late 1800s - to be off one’s kadoova
Late 1800s -To not have all one’s buttons
Late 1800s – To slip a cog
Late 1800s – to be out of touch
1870 – to be off one’s conk
1890 – to be off one’s onion
Early 1900s - to be off one’s kazip
Early 1900s - to be off one’s bean,
1929 – To be round the bend (or around the bend)
1940s - to be off one’s nana
1950s - to be off one’s nob
Also, good friend and fellow writer Bruce West wrote in to
remind me of two more:
The universal sign
language of the index finger spinning at the temple, which Bruce points out
was first reported in 1885 by Captain “White Hat” Clark of the US Cavalry when
documenting the sign language of Native Americans.
Dinky dau, a term Bruce & his fellow Viet
Nam vets brought home with them. The direct translation is crazy head, though dinky dau is used as a synonym for crazy.
Having so many ways to say crazy is, well, crazy! In the comments
section, I’m hoping some of you might note the term above that most took you by
surprise.
Big thanks to this week’s sources: The
Sixties Project, WP Clark’s The Indian Sign Language, Dictionary.com, English
Language & Usage, Word
Wizard, Merriam-Webster, & the OED.
Haha! Some of these are brand new to me. I'd never heard of kadoova or Kasip as things to be off of or on. I love it that we're all using Native American sign language without knowing it.
ReplyDeleteHi Anne -- Looking through all these may have caused me to lose my buttons, though some would assert I've been shy a few buttons for some time (maybe they're hiding behind my kadooza).
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