Antedating of "crazy" (submodifer)

[Laurence Horn]

And then there's "crunk", which rose and fell a decade or so and was at least speculated to have arisen as a blend of "crazy" and "drunk".  I think it was a WOTY nominee in one category or another.

LH


On May 26, 2014, at 11:27 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> Crazy, man!
>
> Occasional collocations of this sort, "Crazy and ([or] because of being)
> drunk" and  "crazy and ([or] because of being) busy," evolve into the
> current more general adverbial "crazy" meaning "wildly; extraordinarily;
> very."
>
> Cf. the old-fashioned jazzy sense of "exciting; marvelous; fine." You know,
> "gone."
>
> JL
>
>
>
> On Mon, May 26, 2014 at 11:05 AM, Hugo <hugovk at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Hugo <hugovk at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Antedating of "crazy" (submodifer)
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> "Crazy" (adverb as a submodifier) has been added to Oxford Dictionaries in
>> the latest quarterly update:
>> http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2014/05/new-words-may-2014/
>>
>> This is already in the OED, first quoted as "crazy drunk" in 1887. Here's
>> an earlier "crazy drunk" (and evidently a reprinting):
>>
>> New-York daily tribune., February 16, 1843, Image 4:
>>
>> [Begin]
>> From the Boston Mercantile Journal.
>> What Intrepidity can Accomplish.
>> By Hawser Martingale.
>> ...
>> He said that the previous evening, after he and his
>> mates had turned in, two of his men had lowered
>> the sters[?] boat, and gone on board a Spanish felucca
>> and procured a quantity of brandy--and that all
>> hands, with the exception of an old man and a boy,
>> had got "crazy drunk," and had made a sad dis-
>> turbance during the night, setting his authority at
>> naught, and treating his mates with ridicule and
>> contempt--that he bad been ashore to get assis-
>> tance, but in vain, and that his officers were then
>> in the cabin, in great tribulation, not knowing what
>> extravagances or outrages the crew might be in-
>> duced, by the spirit of mischief and brandy com-
>> bined, to commit.
>> [End]
>>
>>
>> http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030213/1843-02-16/ed-1/seq-4/#da=
>>
>> te1=3D1836&sort=3Ddate&date2=3D1922&searchType=3Dadvanced&language=3D&seque=
>>
>> nce=3D0&index=3D0&words=3Dcrazy+drunk&proxdistance=3D5&rows=3D20&ortext=3D&=
>>
>> proxtext=3D&phrasetext=3Dcrazy+drunk&andtext=3D&dateFilterType=3DyearRange&=
>> page=3D1
>>
>>
>> As ODO mentions "crazy busy", here's a 1916.
>>
>> The Ogden standard., August 22, 1916, 4 P.M. CITY EDITION, Page 8, Image 8,
>> "Woman's Page", "Zoe Beckley's Story", "David Finds a House-man":
>>
>> [Begin]
>> Oh, forgive me dear. I don't mean to be cross, but I'm crazy busy.
>> [End]
>>
>>
>> http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85058396/1916-08-22/ed-1/seq-8/#da=
>>
>> te1=3D1836&index=3D0&date2=3D1922&searchType=3Dadvanced&language=3D&sequenc=
>>
>> e=3D0&words=3Dbusy+crazy&proxdistance=3D5&sort=3Ddate&rows=3D20&ortext=3D&p=
>>
>> roxtext=3D&phrasetext=3Dcrazy+busy&andtext=3D&dateFilterType=3DyearRange&pa=
>> ge=3D3
>>
>> Hugo
>>
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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