[Ads-l] "Mental", n

James A. Landau JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM
Wed Jan 25 15:15:07 UTC 2017


On Tue, 24 Jan 2017 06:21:43 Zone + 0000 Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM>
wrote:

> in Glasgow Urban Speech, "mental" denotes a specific
>*kind* of insanity -- a mental boy would be a berserkganger, someone 
>liable to go bananas at the drop of an accent.

Is this why, in the Harry Potter books, one of Ron Weazley's favorite expressions is to say
someone is "mental"?  Joanne "J. K." Rowling lived in Glasgow for many years and may have
picked up the term from Glasgow Urban Speech.

- Jim Landau 


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