Etymologically
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madden

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈmæd.(ə̯)n̩/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English mad + -en, with the verb-forming suffix.[2][3][4][5][6] Mad goes back to Old English gemædde (“out of one's mind”).[3] The earlier verb in this sense was simply mad, used from the 14th century.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Intransitive, to become mad: 1704, in Joseph Addison's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, where it may mean to act like a madman.[2] Etymonline dates the intransitive use from 1735.[3]

Semantic evolution

The transitive sense, to make mad or drive into a frenzy or rage, follows in 1720,[2] or 1726 in Merriam-Webster,[5] and Etymonline dates it only from 1822.[3] It later weakened to "irritate, annoy",[2][4] and the present participle maddening came to mean "exasperating".[4] Johnson (1755) entered both uses, transitive "to make mad" with a quotation from Thomson, and intransitive "to become mad; to act as mad".[7] The intransitive use is obsolete in the OED, whose last record is from 1913,[2] though Merriam-Webster and the Shorter Oxford still list it.[5][4] In Scots and Yorkshire dialect the verb meant to anger, annoy or vex.[8]

Timeline

  • 14th century – the verb mad, to make or be mad.[3]
  • 1704 – intransitive, to become mad.[2]
  • 1720 – transitive, to make mad; to enrage.[2]
  • 1726 – Merriam-Webster's date for the transitive sense.[5]
  • 1755 – Johnson enters it as both transitive and intransitive.[7]
  • 1913 – last OED record of the intransitive sense.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make someone very angry; to infuriate or exasperate: The constant delays maddened the passengers.[9][4][2]
  2. To drive someone insane or into a frenzy: horses maddened by fear.[5][2][4]
  3. To become mad, or to act as if mad.[5][4][9]

Word family

  • maddening

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins