madness

Etymology

It is formed from English mad + -ness,^[2][3][4][5] first as Middle English maddnesse.^[5][6] The adjective mad is from Old English gemædde (“out of one's mind”), the past participle of a lost verb *gemædan (“to make insane”), from Proto-Germanic *gamaidaz (“changed for the worse, abnormal”).^[3] The OED compares the earlier woodness, used in some of the same senses, and the rare madship.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wild foolishness or delusion resembling insanity: about 1384, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible (Hosea).^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century with the senses "insanity" and "rash or irrational conduct", and the sense "foolishness" to the early 15th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense "mental illness" follows before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus; it was also used of rabies, especially in dogs, a use now historical and rare.^[2][4] Wild excitement or enthusiasm is recorded from 1595, in George Peele's Old Wives' Tale, and uncontrollable anger or fury from 1663, extended by 1697, in Dryden's Virgil, to things such as raging waves.^[2][4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "distraction; loss of understanding" and as "fury; wildness; rage".^[7] The phrase method in one's madness is listed by the Shorter Oxford,^[4] and midsummer madness is one of its compounds.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1384 – folly or delusion resembling insanity.^[2]
• before 1398 – mental illness; also rabies.^[2]
• 1595 – wild excitement or enthusiasm.^[2][4]
• 1663 – uncontrollable anger, rage.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Serious mental illness; insanity.^[8][5][2]
2. Extreme folly; very foolish or reckless behaviour: It would be madness to sail in this wind.^[8][5][2]
3. Wild excitement or enthusiasm.^[8][2][4]
4. Intense anger; rage or fury.^[8][5][2]
5. Rabies.^[8][4]

Word family

• midsummer madness

Related words

• mad
• woodness
• madship

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins