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It may have been for all I know, but doolally was the AWAD for that day.
Date: Mon May 13 00:01:10 EDT 2002
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--doolally
X-Bonus: The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. -Carl Gustav Jung, psychiatrist and psychologist (1875-1961)
doolally (DU-lah-lee) adjective
Irrational, deranged, or insane.
[After Deolali, an Indian town.]
"As aid dwindled, Mr Mugabe made no effort to spend within his
means. From 1997, public finances went doolally. The main result
was graft."
Hell, No, I Won't Go, The Economist (London), Feb 21, 2002.
Deolali is a small town in western India, about 100 miles from Mumbai
(formerly Bombay) with an unusual claim to fame. It's where British
soldiers who had completed their tour of duty were sent to await
transportation home. It was a long wait - often many months - before
they were to be picked up by ships to take them to England. Consequent
boredom, and heat, turned many a soldier insane, and the word doolally was coined.
At first the term was used in the form "He's got the Doo-lally tap",
from Sanskrit tapa (heat) meaning one has caught doolally fever but
now it's mostly seen as in "to go doolally". In Australia, it goes as
"don't do your lolly".
In this week's AWAD we'll visit a few other places that have given
toponyms (words derived from place names) to the English Language. -Anu
Bingley
Bingley
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The same difference
musick 07/05/05 04:56 PM
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