wild about Rappaccini's daughter (UNCLASSIFIED)

Wed Feb 13 16:07:27 UTC 2008

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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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