wild about Rappaccini's daughter (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

I barely remember 1st year German vocabulary (it was nearly 30 years
ago).  Dunno about idiomatic expressions.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Wilson Gray
> Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 1:38 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: wild about Rappaccini's daughter (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: wild about Rappaccini's daughter (UNCLASSIFIED)
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> Once, a German acquaintance kiddingly took a pen from me and,
> when I tried to get it back, she said, "Wird wild!" I didn't
> understand what she meant - well, I understood the words, but
> the words clearly had some idiomatic meaning under that
> circumstance that I didn't understand and which she didn't
> have the English to explain. So Bill help me out, here. I've
> been confused about this since 1961.
>
> -Wilson
>
> On Feb 13, 2008 11:07 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
> <Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> > Subject:      Re: wild about Rappaccini's daughter (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ---------
> >
> > Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
> > Caveats: NONE
> >
> > German for "crazy" is "wild".  Do you suppose this usage of English
> > "wild" comes from the German, rather than a reworking of
> the English
> > word?
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: American Dialect Society
> > > [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Joel S. Berson
> > > Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 9:36 AM
> > > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > > Subject: Re: wild about Rappaccini's daughter
> > >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > > Subject:      Re: wild about Rappaccini's daughter
> > > --------------------------------------------------------------
> > > -----------------
> > >
> > > At 2/13/2008 09:38 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > > >OED has "wild," 11.c, from Jane Austen "a1817."  Yet it
> > > lacks any U.S.
> > > >exx. (as far as I can tell) and has no ex. constr. with "about"
> > > >till 1868.  Tsk.
> > > >
> > > >   1844 Nathaniel Hawthorne in _The United States Democratic
> > > Review_
> > > > (Dec.) 549: You have heard of this daughter, whom all the
> > > young men in
> > > > Padua are wild about.
> > >
> > > Hmph!  How did I miss that in my thorough reading of all of
> > > Hawthorne's short stories about 5 years ago?  (I'm
> waiting anxiously
> > > for Hawthorne's "salt" = experienced sailor to enter OED3,
> > > antedating Dana's _Two Years Before the Mast_ by five years.)
> > >
> > > But a search of the OED2 CD-ROM turns up, under "stark,
> a. and adv.":
> > >
> > > a1721 Prior _Poems, Cromwell & Porter_ 281 You may study
> among the
> > > Law givers without being stark wild about Ordinances and
> > > Proclamations.
> > >
> > > Not American, though.
> > >
> > > Joel
> > >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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>
>
> --
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
> complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
>                                               -Sam'l Clemens
>
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