mad

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See also: Mad, MAD, and mäd

Translingual

Symbol

mad

  1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Madurese.

English

Etymology

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

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

Adjective

mad (comparative madder, superlative maddest)

  1. (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.
  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, 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:
      But I mean, once the flow was there, nobody was mad at it.
  4. (UK, 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
    • 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.
  7. Extremely foolish or unwise; irrational; imprudent.
  8. (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?
  9. (of animals) Abnormally ferocious or furious; or, rabid, affected with rabies.
    a mad dog
  10. (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.
  11. (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 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).
  • 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

Translations

Adverb

mad (not comparable)

  1. (slang, chiefly New York, African-American Vernacular and UK, 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

Verb

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

  1. (obsolete, intransitive) To be or become mad.
  2. (now colloquial US, Jamaica) To madden, to anger, to frustrate.

Derived terms

Terms derived from mad (all parts of speech)

References

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

Anagrams

Breton

Etymology

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

Adjective

mad

  1. good

Noun

mad

  1. goodness

Danish

Danish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia da

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)

  1. food
Declension
Declension of mad
common
gender 		Singular
indefinite definite
nominative mad maden
genitive mads madens
Derived terms
  • babymad
  • aftensmad
  • morgenmad
  • natmad
  • madglad

Noun

mad c (singular definite madden, plural indefinite madder)

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

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

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

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

Verb

mad

  1. imperative of made

Middle English

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)

  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
Descendants
  • English: mad
  • Scots: mad
  • Yola: mad
References

Etymology 2

Derived from the adjective.

Verb

mad

  1. Alternative form of madden

Etymology 3

Pronunciation

Verb

mad

  1. past participle of make

Old Irish

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Univerbation of má (“if”) +‎ ba/bid

Verb

mad

  1. if it be; if it were (third-person singular present/past subjunctive)

For quotations using this term, see Citations:mad.

Etymology 2

A reduced form of maith (“good”).

Adverb

mad

  1. well, fortunately
Descendants

Further reading

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Nasalization
mad
also mmad after a proclitic 		mad
pronounced with /ṽ(ʲ)-/ 		unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Palauan

Etymology 1

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

Noun

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 (literally, “what extends beyond (in the direction of) our face”)
  3. aperture, access, entrance
Inflection
Possessives of mad
Singular Plural
First inclusive medad
exclusive medak medemam
Second medam medemiu
Third medal mederir

Etymology 2

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

Verb

mad

  1. 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.

Welsh

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

Adjective

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

  1. good
  2. lucky, fortunate
  3. suitable

Noun

mad m (plural madioedd)

  1. goodness
  2. good person

Mutation

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.

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English mad, from Old English ġemǣdd, ġemǣded (“enraged”).

Pronunciation

Adjective

mad

  1. 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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