"going bananas"

M

Michael

歌舞伎
Valued Senior Member
Why "going bananas" aka going crazy? Where did that come from? I mean bananas?

I was thinking maybe it was in reference to monkeys caged a zoo. I'm sure they go ape-shit over bananas...
 
This is the only website I can find that gives an etymology and it agrees with your assumption.

As for "ape-shit," we used to just say "go ape." In the 1960s when American culture loosened up, people added "shit" to everything just because they could get away with it, e.g. "dumb-shit." We wore out the shock value of shit so now they're starting over with "fuck," e.g. "dumb-fuck." English has a very small number of swear words compared to many languages, so I wonder what they'll do when they run out? :)
 
Here's the best answer I found...

Everybody knows what "going bananas" means: you've just turned plain cuckoo. But what are the origins of the phrase? Strangely, even the most authoritative source on Anglo etymology, The Oxford English Dictionary, isn't sure. The first known usage of the term has been credited to a 1968 academic publication, which noted that Kentucky college students were saying it.


http://discovolonte.typepad.com/discovolonte/2007/12/the-mystery-of.html#more
 
cosmictraveler said:
Here's the best answer I found...

Everybody knows what "going bananas" means: you've just turned plain cuckoo. But what are the origins of the phrase? Strangely, even the most authoritative source on Anglo etymology, The Oxford English Dictionary, isn't sure. The first known usage of the term has been credited to a 1968 academic publication, which noted that Kentucky college students were saying it.


http://discovolonte.typepad.com/discovolonte/2007/12/the-mystery-of.html#more
Click to expand...

Wow the 1957 reference is interesting. I wonder if I could make up some jargon?

Also, when we were kids, people were talking about how smoking banana's could make you high (or so I think I remember??). Anyway, we didn't have any banana's so we tried to smoke some corn-silk. HaaaHaaa - needless to say it didn't work!!
 
darini said:
So, what we watch in Hollywood movies must be 50% of the swear words said by Anglophones?
Click to expand...
No, I think they cover 100% of them, sometimes all in the same movie. Perhaps 110%, I wouldn't be surprised if Hollywood writers are the source of new ones. In 1972 George Carlin listed the "seven dirty words" that were forbidden on TV and although it's a little imprecise in order to fit the meter of his chanting delivery, it's surprisingly complete and hasn't expanded since then. When you consider that Hugo Chávez could call George Bush a pendejo (pubic hair) and get titillated nods of acknowledgment from a majority of the people in the Western Hemisphere including several U.S. states, we anglophones start to feel very constrained by our tiny vocabulary of dirty words.
 
Yeah English is impoverished where swearing is concerned. Other languages have things like Phai-sha-sa-mkhan (Tibetan: Eater of father's flesh) and lo'fasz a seggedbe (Hungarian: a horse's dick up your ass) while we have to make do with shit, fuck, cunt, bollocks and asshole...
 
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