meshuggener means crazy, insane. It carries an Arena rating of 1649, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, meshuggener ranks #110 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #390 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #2,822 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #3,835 of 17,128 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
meshuggener is pronounced /məˈʃʊɡənər/.
Why “meshuggener” is a great word
A crazy or foolish person, or the quality of being so. From Yiddish *meshugener* ("lunatic," noun), from *meshuge* ("crazy"), itself from Hebrew *m'shugá* ("crazy"). Unlike "eccentric," which suggests a harmless oddity, or "lunatic," with its formal, clinical chill, *meshuggener* is a colloquial sigh of exasperated affection. It is the relative who invests the family savings in a revolutionary pickle jar, the man on the subway arguing passionately with his hat, and the scent of burnt kugel from a 3 a.m. baking spree—a testament to the bewildering, necessary human capacity for folly that binds chaos to community.
Etymology
From Yiddish משוגענער (meshugener, “lunatic”, noun). Compare Yiddish משוגע (meshuge, “crazy”).
noun
- A madman; a crazy person, a nutter.e.g.“‘Enough,’ as Tsedraiter Ike put it, ‘with giving satisfaction to the anti-Semites. Just lock the meshuggener away.’” — 2006, Howard Jacobson, Kalooki Nights, Vintage, published 2007, page 59:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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