mad: [13] The underlying etymological meaning of mad is ‘changed’. It goes back ultimately to Indo-European *moitó-, a past participial form based on *moi-, *mei-, ‘change’ (source also of Latin mūtāre ‘change’, from which English gets mutate). Prehistoric Germanic inherited it, adding the collective prefix *ga- to form *gamaithaz, which passed into Old English as gemād ‘insane’. From this was derived the verb gem?dan ‘madden’, whose past participle gem?ded eventually became a new adjective gem?dd. By the Middle English period this had become amadd, and the reduced prefix aeventually disappeared, leaving mad. => mutate
mad (adj.)
late 13c., from Old English gem?dde (plural) "out of one's mind" (usually implying also violent excitement), also "foolish, extremely stupid," earlier gem?ded "rendered insane," past participle of a lost verb *gem?dan "to make insane or foolish," from Proto-Germanic *ga-maid-jan, demonstrative form of *ga-maid-az "changed (for the worse), abnormal" (cognates: Old Saxon gimed "foolish," Old High German gimeit "foolish, vain, boastful," Gothic gamaits "crippled, wounded," Old Norse meiea "to hurt, maim"), from intensive prefix *ga- + PIE *moito-, past participle of root *mei- (1) "to change" (cognates: Latin mutare "to change," mutuus "done in exchange," migrare "to change one's place of residence;" see mutable).
Emerged in Middle English to replace the more usual Old English word, wod (see wood (adj.)). Sense of "beside oneself with excitement or enthusiasm" is from early 14c. Meaning "beside oneself with anger" is attested from early 14c., but deplored by Rev. John Witherspoon (1781) as an Americanism. It now competes in American English with angry for this sense. Of animals, "affected with rabies," from late 13c. Phrase mad as a March hare is attested from 1520s, via notion of breeding season; mad as a hatter is from 1829 as "demented," 1837 as "enraged," according to a modern theory supposedly from erratic behavior caused by prolonged exposure to poison mercuric nitrate, used in making felt hats. For mad as a wet hen see hen. Mad money is attested from 1922; mad scientist is from 1891.
mad (adv.)
late 14c., from mad (adj.).
雙語例句
1. " Queer " is the word often used euphemistically for " mad ".
“ Queer ” 這個詞常用作 “ mad ” 的委婉語.
來自《現代漢英綜合大詞典》
2. There are certain things he does that drive me mad.
他的某些舉動讓我很生氣。
來自柯林斯例句
3. She's not as mad about sport as I am.
她不像我對體育那么癡迷。
來自柯林斯例句
4. You are mad, Isabel. You should be locked up.
你瘋了，伊莎貝爾。應該把你關起來才是。
來自柯林斯例句
5. The family's hopping mad that she left them nothing.