Recent developments in American political life have made me curious about the expression batshit crazy. The words come unbidden to my lips when I hear a certain sweater-vested man pronouncing upon matters of contraception, education, marriage, and everything else.
The Oxford English Dictionary explains it all. Since 1971, batshit has meant “crazy, mad, insane.” The OED notes that batshit may also function “as an intensifier, esp. in batshit crazy.” The OED ’s first citation dates from 1993: “His mug is emblazoned with the words: full-blown bat shit crazy.”
A shout-out to that sweater-vested man: Shine on, you batshit-crazy diamond, all the way to your party’s nomination if possible.
[“Since 1971” is a bit of a joke: that’s the year for the first citation. Why the hyphen in batshit-crazy ? “When a phrase functions as an adjective preceding the noun it modifies — an increasingly frequent phenomenon in 20th- and 21st-century English — the phrase should ordinarily be hyphenated”: Bryan Garner, Garner’s Modern American Usage (2009). Garner does not give batshit-crazy as an example; I am applying his maxim here.]
Monday, February 27, 2012
Batshit crazy
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comments: 5
Perhaps he is just refraining from using "apeshit" so as not to alienate the 18-39 primate demographic. :)
Using? Do you mean going?
I was so hoping that Newt would be The One-- since I was the babysitter for the first Mrs. Gingrich (my geometry teacher) and our families were in touch for many years. I just LOVE telling everything I know about Newt (and the lovely, dedicated person he kicked to the curb.) My husband assures me that things will be just as exciting (if less personal) if we have Sweater-Vest-Boy as the nominee.
but I LIKED when it was personal...
Elaine, are you planning to write something about the House of Gingrich?
I guess Gingrich has little chance of being the nominee, but I’m hoping for Santorum.
I felt like Newt would be so scary that even the Obama-haters would be reluctant to back the GOP candidate. Santorum, however, is doing a pretty good job of getting...well, bat shit crazier every day.
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