A.Word.A.Day -- doolally

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May 13, 2002

This week's theme
Toponyms

This week's words
doolally
siberia
lido
Rosetta stone
pharos

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

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.

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.

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)

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