loco
/ˈləʊ.kəʊ/ adverb, adjective, noun, verb
Forms locos locoes locoing locoed
- adverb (music) A direction in written or printed music to be returning to the proper pitch after having played an octave higher or lower.
- adjective (colloquial) Crazy.
- adjective (Southwestern US) Intoxicated by eating locoweed.
- noun A certain species of Astragalus or Oxytropis, capable of causing locoism.
- verb (transitive) To poison with the loco plant; to affect with locoism.
- verb (transitive, colloquial, by extension) To render insane.
Synonyms
pea struck locoweed balmy barmy bats batty bonkers buggy cracked crackers daft dotty fruity haywire kooky kookie loony loopy nuts nutty round the bend around the bend wacky whacky
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian.
From Spanish loco (“insane, crazy; loose”).
From clipping of locomotive and locofoco, both from Latin locus (“place, cause”).
Webster’s 1913
- adverb A direction in written or printed music to return to the proper pitch after having played an octave higher.
- noun A plant (Astragalus Hornii) growing in the Southwestern United States, which is said to poison horses and cattle, first making them insane. The name is also given vaguely to several other species of the same genus. Called also loco weed.
- noun A chronic nervous affection of cattle, horses, and sheep, caused by eating the loco weed and characterized by a slow, measured gait, high step, glassy eyes with defective vision, delirium, and gradual emaciation.
Etymology [It.]
Etymology [Sp. loco insane.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “loco”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details