going tonto

[sagehen]

Ro Butters writes:
>Wouldn't the Brits (source of the original cite) be more likely to pick up
>TONTO ' silly > crazy' from Spanish--where it is a word that one would learn
>fairly early on in studying the language--than that they would make a leap
>from the American Lone Ranger's sidekick, who was in no way silly or crazy
>(and who isn't that well known among younger people today anyway, is he?)<

By coincidence, when this thread started, I happened to be reading a
British detective story, copyright 2001, laid in Lancs, in which both Tonto
and the Lone Ranger are casually referred to as familiar cultural entities.
(The expression "going tonto" was not used.)
A. Murie