English
mad
Mad comes from Old English ġemǣd ‘maddened’, past participle of ġemǣdan ‘to make foolish’, from Proto-Germanic *maidijaną ‘to change, injure’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meyth₂-1‘to change’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*moyth₂-éye-ti1reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*maidijaną1‘to change’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150*mǣdan1reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150ġemǣdan1
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mad1
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1588–1593mad1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English mad
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1588–1593, William Shakespeare, The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus: “I have heard my grandsire say full oft, /…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meyth₂-Wiktionary, English mad‘to change’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*moyth₂-éye-tiWiktionary, English madreconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*maidijanąWiktionary, English mad‘to change’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150*mǣdanWiktionary, English madreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150ġemǣdanWiktionary, English mad
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500madWiktionary, English mad
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1588–1593madWiktionary, English mad. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1588–1593, William Shakespeare, The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus: “I have heard my grandsire say full oft, /…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with mad, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- ‘to change’
- miss ← missen ← missan ← *missijan ← *missijaną
- message ← missāticum ← mittere
- mess ← mes ← mēse ← mē(n)sa ← mittō
- commit ← committen ← committō ← mittō ← mītō
- premise ← premisse ← premissa ← praemittere ← mittō
- mute ← mutō
- mutant ← mūtāns ← mūtō
- intermittent ← intermittens ← mittens ← mittō ← mītō
- omit ← omitten ← omittō ← *ommittō ← mittō
- misnomer ← misnoumer ← mesnomer ← nominō ← nōmen
- mutate ← mūtō
- transmutation ← transmutacion ← transmutationem ← transmutō ← mūtō
27 more relatives in the full family tree
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Another origin of mad
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meyth₂-‘to change’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*moyth₂-éye-tireconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*maidijaną‘to exchange, change’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150*mǣdanreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150ġemǣdan
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mad
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500madden‘to be mad or insane’
- Englishtodaymad
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Today it means
adj Insane; crazy; mentally deranged.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “mad”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.