mad

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See also: Mad, MAD, and mäd

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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”)).

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈmæd/
  • (Southern England, Australia) IPA(key): /ˈmæːd/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -æd

Adjective[edit]

mad (comparative madder, superlative maddest)

  1. 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.
  2. (chiefly US; informal in UK) Angry, annoyed.
    Are you mad at me?
  3. (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.
    • 2019, The Real Housewives of Atlanta‎[1], season 13, episode 3:
      I'm not mad at this little house, though.
    • 2019, “'Thank U' Text: Ariana Grande's Collaborators Break Down The Artist's Latest Album”, in NPR‎[2]:
      But I mean, once the flow was there, nobody was mad at it.
  4. (Britain, informal) Bizarre; incredible.
    It's mad that I got that job back a day after being fired.
  5. Wildly confused or excited.
    to be mad with terror, lust, or hatred
  6. Extremely foolish or unwise; irrational; imprudent.
  7. (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?
  8. (of animals) Abnormally ferocious or furious; or, rabid, affected with rabies.
    a mad dog
  9. (slang, chiefly Northeastern US) Intensifier, signifies an 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.
  10. (of a compass needle) Having impaired polarity.

Usage notes[edit]

Within 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 far more often than not refers to anger rather than madness, 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 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 "went mad" or having "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[edit]

Translations[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Can 'Mad' Mean 'Angry'? | Merriam-Webster

Adverb[edit]

mad (not comparable)

  1. (slang, New England, New York and Britain, dialect) 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[edit]

Verb[edit]

mad (third-person singular simple present mads, present participle madding, simple past and past participle madded)

  1. (obsolete, intransitive) To be or become mad. [14th-19th c.]
    • 1852, Washington Irving, Tales from the Alhambra:
      The imperial Elizabetta gazed with surprise at the youthful and unpretending appearance of the little being that had set the world madding.
  2. (now colloquial US) To madden, to anger, to frustrate. [from 15th c.]

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from mad (all parts of speech)

Anagrams[edit]

Breton[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Brythonic *mad, from Proto-Celtic *matis.

Adjective[edit]

mad

  1. good

Noun[edit]

mad

  1. goodness

Danish[edit]

Danish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia da

Etymology 1[edit]

From Old Norse matr, from Proto-Germanic *matiz, cognate with Norwegian, Swedish mat (“food”), English meat, German Mett (from Low German).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

mad c (singular definite maden, not used in plural form)

  1. food
Inflection[edit]
Declension of mad
common
gender 		Singular
indefinite definite
nominative mad maden
genitive mads madens
Derived terms[edit]

Noun 2[edit]

mad c (singular definite madden, plural indefinite madder)

  1. a slice of bread with something on top.
Usage notes[edit]

Very compound-prone; see for example ostemad or pølsemad.

Inflection[edit]
Declension of mad
common
gender 		Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative mad madden madder madderne
genitive mads maddens madders maddernes
Derived terms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

See the etymology of the main entry.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /maːˀð/, [ˈmaˀð]

Verb[edit]

mad

  1. imperative of made

Middle English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Old English ġemǣdd, ġemǣded, the past participle of ġemǣdan.

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

mad (plural and weak singular madde, comparative madder, superlative maddyst)

  1. Mad, insane, deranged; not of sound mind.
  2. Emotionally overwhelmed; consumed by mood or feelings.
  3. Perplexed, bewildered; surprised emotionally.
  4. Irate, rageful; having much anger or fury.
  5. Idiotic or dumb; badly thought out or conceived
  6. (rare) Obstinate, incautious, overenthusiastic.
  7. (rare) Distraught, sad, unhappy.
  8. (rare) Scatterbrained or absent-minded.
Derived terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
  • English: mad
  • Scots: mad
References[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Derived from the adjective.

Verb[edit]

mad

  1. Alternative form of madden

Etymology 3[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

mad

  1. past participle of make

Old Irish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Univerbation of má (“if”) +‎ ba/bid

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

mad

  1. if it be; if it were (third-person singular present/past subjunctive)
    • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 10d23
      Mad ar lóg pridcha-sa, .i. ar m’étiuth et mo thoschith, ním·bia fochricc dar hési mo precepte.
      If it be for pay that I preach (subj.), that is, for my clothing and my sustenance, I shall not have a reward for my teaching.
    • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 12c36
      Cote mo thorbe-se dúib mad [a]mne labrar?
      What do I profit you pl (lit. ‘what is my profit to you’) if it be thus that I speak (subj.)?

Palauan[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Pre-Palauan *maða, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *mata, from Proto-Austronesian *maCa.

Noun[edit]

mad

  1. (anatomy) eye (organ), face, facial expression
  2. front; area, space or time in front of
    Medal a blik. ― In front of my house.
    El mo er a medad. ― In the future[1].
  3. aperture, access, entrance

Inflection[edit]

Possessives of mad
Singular Plural
First inclusive medad
exclusive medak medemam
Second medam medemiu
Third medal mederir

Etymology 2[edit]

From Pre-Palauan *maðe, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *(m-)atay, from Proto-Austronesian *(m-)aCay.

Verb[edit]

mad

  1. to die

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Literally, what extends beyond (in the direction of) our face.

References[edit]

  • 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.

Welsh[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Brythonic *mad, from Proto-Celtic *matis.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

mad (feminine singular mad, plural mad, equative mated, comparative matach, superlative mataf)

  1. good
  2. lucky, fortunate
  3. suitable

Noun[edit]

mad m (plural madioedd)

  1. goodness
  2. good person

Mutation[edit]

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
mad fad unchanged unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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