--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> <bzik> 'mania, folly, obsession' is a Polish colloquial word (not
common Slavic), and its earliest attestation is from the late 19th c.
"Miec' bzika (na punkcie czegos')" could be rendered as "to have a
bee in one's bonnet (about sth)" rather than "go berserk" (what's
implied is nuttiness, not fury), and since bees, wasps, gadflies and
the like go "bzzz..." in Polish, an etymological connection with
buzzing vermin is perfectly possible, though like many other
expressive colloquial terms the word may lack a unique "genetic"
source. No connection with <berserkr>, at any rate.
Thanks, Piotr
Just some additional notes about this. Somehow, in American English,
the word "berserk" has often moved phonetically and in text towards
<bizerk>. It appeared in that form in America as early 1918 and a web
search will turn up a large number of texts that use that spelling
(some of it admittedly promo music talk.) And what the writers are
spelling out (promo or not) is what they hear and what I heard as a
kid in NYC -- the word was 'bizerk' and definitely not 'berserk,'
until the educational process corrected what we heard on the street.
And if you slur 'bizerk' in fast speech as we did, it sounds quite
like 'bzik'.
The word 'berserk' itself apparently is securely attested somehat
late and may have been redacted into some ON text. OED gives its
first appearance in English in the very late 1700's and then as
applying to the Berserkers themselves. "Going berserk" appears to be
somewhat later.
In context, 'berserk' has been used as often to refer to a dangerous
loss of self-control as it has to a fury. (e.g., "his computer went
berserk and printed out 300 copies;" "This is a story about ambition
gone berserk. Obsessed with gaining fame, a TV personality (Nicole
Kidman) seduces and persuades (Joaquin Phoenix)...") Mencken defined
it as "being possessed; going haywire."
Perhaps <bzik> is closer to that more general sense of driven mania
or obsession? In any case, I'm bothered by the buzzing insect
expressive interpretation a bit. In Greek, the gadfly drives you (or
livestock) mad by tormenting you as I think does the bee in one's
bonnet. Does <bzik> carry that connotation of being tormented into
madness?
You write "...though like many other expressive colloquial terms the
word may lack a unique "genetic" source. No connection with
<berserkr>, at any rate." I understand why a name for a form of
irrational behavior might likely be expressive. But without an
attested origin, how do you exclude a connection to <berserk> with
such absoluteness? Is it impossible that <berserk> or better yet
<bizerk> could have any connection to <bzik> under any circunmstance?
This evening at least it strikes me as odd that "related" words can
undergo such extreme sound changes over time while traveling words
are expected to be stable.
Thanks again,
Steve Long
etc.