crazy/insane gradation

[Robin Hamilton]

From: "James Harbeck" <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>

> Although "crazy" and "insane" supposedly mean the same thing, I find
> my sense that in common (metaphorical) use there is a gradation
> confirmed by a quote in today's New York Times:

Completely different connotations.  Consider, you can be crazy like a fox,
but who'd want to be insane like a fox?

Minimal pairs.

I think the distinction partly turns on whether the person is simply barking
mad, or has actually (as we say in the UK) been Sectioned.

Robin

> "Our forefathers in their infinite wisdom planned for crazy. But this
> week we moved to insane."
> KEITH WRIGHT, a Democratic assemblyman from Manhattan, on the
> dysfunction of state government in Albany.
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/06/nyregion/06albany.html?th&emc=th
> ----
>
> James Harbeck.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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