different between mad vs insensate

English

Etymology

From Middle English mad, madde, madd, medd, from Old English ?em?dd, ?em?ded (“enraged”), past participle of ?em?dan, *m?dan (“to make insane or foolish”), from Proto-Germanic *maidijan? (“to change; damage; cripple; injure; make mad”), from Proto-Germanic *maidaz ("weak; crippled"; compare Old English gem?d (“silly, mad”), Old High German gimeit (“foolish, crazy”), literary German gemeit (“mad, insane”), Gothic ???????????????????????????? (gamaiþs, “crippled”)), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- ("to change"; compare Old Irish máel (“bald, dull”), Old Lithuanian ap-maitinti (“to wound”), Sanskrit ????? (méthati, “he hurts, comes to blows”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mæd/
• (Southern England, Australia) IPA^(key): /?mæ?d/
• Rhymes: -æd

Adjective

mad (comparative madder, superlative maddest)

1. Insane; crazy, mentally deranged.
2. (chiefly US; informal in UK) Angry, annoyed.

3. (chiefly in the negative, informal) Used litotically to indicate satisfaction or approval.
4. (Britain, informal) Bizarre; incredible.

   It's mad that I got that job back a day after being fired.

5. Wildly confused or excited.

   to be mad with terror, lust, or hatred

   • It is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.

   • 1787, R. Bage, The Fair Syrian, p.314

     My brother, quiet as a cat, seems perfectly contented with the internal feelings of his felicity. The Marquis, mad as a kitten, is all in motion to express it, from tongue to heel.

6. Extremely foolish or unwise; irrational; imprudent.
7. (colloquial, usually with for or about) Extremely enthusiastic about; crazy about; infatuated with; overcome with desire for.

8. (of animals) Abnormally ferocious or furious; or, rabid, affected with rabies.

9. (slang, chiefly Northeastern US) Intensifier, signifies an abundance or high quality of a thing; very, much or many.

10. (of a compass needle) Having impaired polarity.

Usage notes

Within Commonwealth countries other than Canada, mad typically implies the insane or crazy sense more so than the angry sense.

In the United States and Canada, the word mad far more often than not refers to anger rather than madness, but such usage is still considered informal by some speakers and labeled as such even in North American English by most UK dictionaries. This is due to an old campaign (since 1781 by amateur language pundits) to discredit the angry sense of the word that was more effective in the UK than in North America. Though not as old as the sense denoting insanity, the sense relating to anger is certainly very old (going back at least to the fourteenth century).

On the other hand, if one is described as "went mad" or having "gone mad" in North America, this denotes insanity, and not anger. Meanwhile, if one "is mad at" something or has "been mad about" something, it is understood that they are angered rather than insane. In addition, such derivatives as "madness", "madman", "madhouse" and "madly" always denote insanity, irrespective of whether one is in the Commonwealth or in North America.

Synonyms

• (insane): See also Thesaurus:insane
• (angry): See also Thesaurus:angry
• (slang: Intensifier, much): wicked, mighty, kinda, helluv, hella.

Translations

Notes

Adverb

mad (not comparable)

1. (slang, New England, New York and Britain, dialect) Intensifier; to a large degree; extremely; exceedingly; very; unbelievably.

   He was driving mad slow.

   It's mad hot today.

   He seems mad keen on her.

Synonyms

• (slang: Intensifier; very): hella; helluv; wicked

Verb

mad (third-person singular simple present mads, present participle madding, simple past and past participle madded)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To be or become mad. [14th-19th c.]
   • 1852, Washington Irving, Tales from the Alhambra:

     The imperial Elizabetta gazed with surprise at the youthful and unpretending appearance of the little being that had set the world madding.

2. (now colloquial US) To madden, to anger, to frustrate. [from 15th c.]
   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Richard the Second, Act V Scene 5:

     This musick mads me, let it sound no more.

Derived terms

Anagrams

• ADM, AMD, Adm., DAM, DMA, MDA, adm., dam

Breton

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *mad, from Proto-Celtic *matis.

Adjective

mad

1. good

Noun

mad

1. goodness

Danish

Etymology 1

From Old Norse matr, from Proto-Germanic *matiz, cognate with Norwegian, Swedish mat (“food”), English meat, German Mett (from Low German).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mað/, [?mað]
• Rhymes: -ad

Noun

mad c (singular definite maden, not used in plural form)

1. food

Inflection

Derived terms

• babymad

Noun 2

mad c (singular definite madden, plural indefinite madder)

1. a slice of bread with something on top.

Usage notes

Very compound-prone; see for example ostemad or pølsemad.

Inflection

Derived terms

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma??ð/, [?ma?ð]

Verb

mad

1. imperative of made

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English ?em?dd, ?em?ded, the past participle of ?em?dan.

Alternative forms

• madd, medd

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mad/, /m?d/

Adjective

mad (plural and weak singular madde, comparative madder, superlative maddyst)

1. Mad, insane, deranged; not of sound mind.
2. Emotionally overwhelmed; consumed by mood or feelings.
3. Perplexed, bewildered; surprised emotionally.
4. Irate, rageful; having much anger or fury.
5. Idiotic or dumb; badly thought out or conceived
6. (rare) Obstinate, incautious, overenthusiastic.
7. (rare) Distraught, sad, unhappy.
8. (rare) Scatterbrained or absent-minded.

Derived terms

• amad
• madden
• madhede
• madli
• madnes
• madschipe

Descendants

• English: mad
• Scots: mad

References

• “m??d, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-03-09.

Etymology 2

Derived from the adjective.

Verb

mad

1. Alternative form of madden

Etymology 3

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma?d/, /mad/

Verb

mad

1. past participle of make

Old Irish

Etymology

Univerbation of má (“if”) +? ba/bid

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mað/

Verb

mad

1. if it be; if it were (third-person singular present/past subjunctive)
   • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 10^d23

   • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 12^c36

Palauan

Etymology 1

From Pre-Palauan *maða, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *mata, from Proto-Austronesian *maCa.

Noun

mad

1. (anatomy) eye (organ), face, facial expression
2. front; area, space or time in front of

3. aperture, access, entrance

Inflection

Etymology 2

From Pre-Palauan *maðe, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *(m-)atay, from Proto-Austronesian *(m-)aCay.

Verb

mad

1. to die

Notes

References

• mad in Palauan Language Online: Palauan-English Dictionary, at tekinged.com.
• mad in Palauan-English Dictionary, at trussel2.com.
• mad in Lewis S. Josephs; Edwin G. McManus; Masa-aki Emesiochel (1977) Palauan-English Dictionary, University Press of Hawaii, ?ISBN, page 139.

Welsh

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *mad, from Proto-Celtic *matis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma?d/

Adjective

mad (feminine singular mad, plural mad, equative mated, comparative matach, superlative mataf)

1. good
2. lucky, fortunate
3. suitable

Noun

mad m (plural madioedd)

1. goodness
2. good person

Mutation

English

Etymology

From Latin ?ns?ns?tus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?s?n.s?t/

Adjective

insensate (comparative more insensate, superlative most insensate)

1. Having no sensation or consciousness; unconscious; inanimate.
   • 1816, Lord Byron, Diodati:

     Since thus divided — equal must it be

     If the deep barrier be of earth, or sea;

     It may be both — but one day end it must

     In the dark union of insensate dust.

   • 1928, Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Moriturus":

     If I might be

     Insensate matter

     With sensate me

     Sitting within,

     Harking and prying,

     I might begin

     To dicker with dying.

2. Senseless; foolish; irrational.
   • 1818, Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy, ch. 13:

     [T]he sot, the gambler, the bully, the jockey, the insensate fool, were a thousand times preferable to Rashleigh.

   • 1854, Charles Dickens, Hard Times, ch. 13:

     Stupidly dozing, or communing with her incapable self about nothing, she sat for a little while with her hands at her ears. . . . Finally, she laid her insensate grasp upon the bottle that had swift and certain death in it, and, before his eyes, pulled out the cork with her teeth.

   • 1913, Joseph Conrad, Chance, ch. 6:

     [T]he romping girl teased her . . . and was always trying to pick insensate quarrels with her about some "fellow" or other.

   • 1918, Louis Joseph Vance, The False Faces, ch. 12:

     But in his insensate passion for revenge upon one who had all but murdered him, he had forgotten all else but the moment's specious opportunity.

3. Unfeeling, heartless, cruel, insensitive.
   • 1847, Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall,ch. 36:

     I was cold-hearted, hard, insensate.

   • 1904, Frank Norris, A Man's Woman, ch. 6:

     That insensate, bestial determination, iron-hearted, iron-strong, had beaten down opposition, had carried its point.

   • 1917, Frank L. Packard, The Adventures of Jimmie Dale, ch. 8:

     . . . the most cold-blooded, callous murders and robberies, the work, on the face of it, of a well-organized band of thugs, brutal, insensate, little better than fiends.

4. (medicine, physiology) Not responsive to sensory stimuli.
   • 1958 June, Edward B. Schlesinger, "Trigeminal Neuralgia," American Journal of Nursing, vol. 58, no. 6, p. 854:

     If the ophthalmic branch is cut the patient must be told about the hazards of having an insensate cornea.

   • 2004 Aug. 1, Jeff G. van Baal, "Surgical Treatment of the Infected Diabetic Foot," Clinical Infectious Diseases, vol. 39, p. S126:

     The presence of severe pain with a deep plantar foot infection in a diabetic patient is often the first alarming symptom, especially in a patient with a previously insensate foot.

   • 2005 Feb. 5, "Minerva," BMJ: British Medical Journal, vol. 330, no. 7486, p. 316:

     The innocuous trauma of high pressure jets and bubble massage to the insensate breast and back areas had caused the bruising seen in the picture.

Antonyms

• (having no sensation or consciousness): sentient

Translations

Noun

insensate (plural insensates)

1. One who is insensate.
   • 1873, Thomas Hardy, A Pair of Blue Eyes, ch. 22:

     Here, at any rate, hostility did not assume that slow and sickening form. It was a cosmic agency, active, lashing, eager for conquest: determination; not an insensate standing in the way.

Verb

insensate (third-person singular simple present insensates, present participle insensating, simple past and past participle insensated)

1. (rare) To render insensate; to deprive of sensation or consciousness.
   • 1915, James Oliver Curwood, God's Country And the Woman, ch. 24 (Google preview):

     And this thought, blinding them to all else, insensating them to all emotions but that of vengeance, was thought of Josephine.

   • 2002, Shony A. Braun, My Heart Is a Violin, ?ISBN, p. 60 (Google preview):

     The train moved on again, keeping us prisoners in a stench-filled car, starving, suffocating, insensated.

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “insensate”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN

Anagrams

• antisense

Italian

Adjective

insensate f pl

1. feminine plural of insensato

Noun

insensate f pl

1. plural of insensata

Anagrams

• annessite

Latin

Adjective

?ns?ns?te

1. vocative masculine singular of ?ns?ns?tus