Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

berserk

UK /ˈbɜːsɜːk/ · US /ˈbɚˌsɚk/ noun, adjective, verb

Forms berserks berserking berserked beserk berzerk

  1. noun (historical) Synonym of berserker (“a Norse warrior who fought in a frenzy”).
  2. adjective Furiously, injuriously, or maniacally violent or out of control. “After seeing his sister stabbed to death, he went berserk and attacked the killer like a wild animal.”
  3. adjective Bizarre; weird.
  4. adjective (rare, dialectal, slang) Wildly joyous; ecstatic.
  5. verb (intransitive) To be or become berserk.
  6. verb (transitive) To make berserk.

Synonyms

berserker blissed out blithe buoyant chirpy blithesome bonnie bright cheerful cheerly cheery chuffed cock-a-hoop content contented convivial delighted ebullient ecstatic elated amuck amok demoniac demoniacal possessed

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from Old Norse berserkr (“Norse warrior who fights in a frenzy”), probably from bjǫrn (“bear”) + serkr (“coat; shirt”), referring to the bearskins which the warriors wore. Bjǫrn is possibly ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“brown”); and serkr from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind, tie together; thread”). Alternatively, it has been suggested that the first element of the word is from berr (“bare, naked”), referring to warriors who went into battle without armour, but this is now thought unlikely. Doublet of berserker.
The adjective is derived from the noun.
The verb might partly be a back-formation from berserker, analyzed as containing the suffix -er.
* Norwegian Bokmål berserk
* Norwegian Nynorsk berserk

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun One of a class of legendary heroes, who fought frenzied by intoxicating liquors, and naked, regardless of wounds. Longfellow.
  2. noun One who fights as if frenzied, like a Berserker.

Etymology [Icel. berserkr.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “berserk”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details