Etymology of "wacko"

[Laurence Horn]

>OED2:  wack (n):  An eccentric or crazy person; a madman, a crackpot.
>    1938 'E. Queen' Four of Hearts (1939) i. 9 All you wacks act this
>way at first. Them that can take it snaps out of it.
>
>OED2 dates "wacky (a)"from 1935.
>
>But -- the -o seems to be derived not only from adjectives
>with
>negative connotations, but also from (the first syllable

or syllables

>of) nouns,
>as in "klepto", from "kleptomaniac"?
>
>Joel

or "nympho(maniac)".  I believe we went through all this a coupla
weeks ago, although maybe I'm just experiencing another sr. moment.

L

>
>At 1/30/2006 09:28 AM, RonButters wrote:
>Thanks for the explanation. I somehow missed the step that e.g.
>STINKO is immediately derived from STINKY, not STINK. Still, in that
>case, how is WACKY derived from WACK? What is a "wack"? Didn't that
>have something to do with women in the army during WWII?
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org