Insane

[andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk]

Christine Karatnytsky writes:
> I am not the one to say, but it seems to me that "insane" is particularly
> British.

Mens insana in corpore insano, no doubt that that's us Brits to a T.
I'll check the OED this evening to see if `insane' has a secret
history.  Personally, I'd go for loony, loopy, potty, doolally or some
of the other more choice variations as being `particularly' British
(not to mention the twisted, self-inflicted and Prodigious `psycho
somatick attick insane'). And of course there is that old chestnut
`eccentric' which seems to be the epithet most favoured by non-Brits
on Brits.


Andrew Dinn
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How do you know but ev'ry bird that cuts the airy way
Is an immense world of pleasure clos'd by your senses five