the.com/madman
The highest compliment for a plan too ambitious to have come from a sane person.
means A man whose mind has become deranged or who acts with wild, uncontrolled irrationality — though today it's often slung affectionately at anyone whose brilliance looks indistinguishable from lunacy.
from Straightforward Old English carpentry: 'mad,' from gemǣd meaning out of one's mind or senseless, bolted onto 'man.' The word has barely changed shape in a thousand years — its drift has been entirely in tone, sliding from clinical dread toward the backhanded awe of calling a wild idea 'madness' you secretly admire.
- origin
- literally just means lunatic, repurposed as praise
- usage
- deployed right before someone attempts something reckless and brilliant
- tone
- admiration disguised as concern for their mental health
- classic line
- he actually did it, the madman