Etymologically
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wacky

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈwæk.iː/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English whack + -y,[2][3][4][5] and is also spelled whacky.[6][7][5] Most dictionaries take the noun whack, a blow or stroke, as the base,[2][5][8][9] and the American Heritage Dictionary thinks it probably comes from the phrase out of whack.[10] Collins and Etymonline explain it as describing a person who acts as if he had been hit on the head too often,[9][8] and Merriam-Webster derives it, perhaps, from the dialect noun whacky, a fool, itself from a dialect compound of whack and head, literally one who has been whacked on the head.[6] Klein calls it of uncertain origin.[11] The noun whack is itself probably imitative.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Crazy, mad, of persons: 1935, in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.[2] Barnhart dates it to 1935 as an American word,[5] and Merriam-Webster to about 1935.[6] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English trace the word to the mid-19th century in dialect,[3][4] and Green's Dictionary of Slang quotes you old whacky, addressed to a man, from 1849.[12]

Semantic evolution

The word began in English dialect as a noun.[3][4][9] In the West Riding and the East Riding of Yorkshire, wacky or whacky was a fool or simpleton, and in Warwickshire and Worcestershire whacky meant left-handed.[13] The adjective "eccentric, crazy" then appeared in American slang in the 1930s,[5][3][8] first of people (1935); from 1937 it was used of things and ideas too.[2] Merriam-Webster stresses that the eccentricity is usually amusing or absurd.[6] The British wacky baccy is a colloquial name for cannabis.[3]

Timeline

  • 1849 – noun, a foolish or eccentric person, spelled whacky.[12]
  • 1878 – wacky, a fool, in West Riding dialect.[13]
  • 1935 – adjective, of persons, crazy, odd.[2][5]
  • 1937 – of things or ideas, odd, peculiar.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Eccentric or irrational in an amusing or absurd way; crazy: a wacky plan to sail across the lake in a bathtub.[6][9][2]
  2. (dialect) Left-handed.[3][13]

Noun

  1. (dialect) A fool or odd person.[3][13][12]

Word family

  • wackily
  • wackiness
  • wacko
  • wack

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  13. ^ a b c d 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)