Craze
/kreɪz/noun
To make someone mentally unbalanced or extremely enthusiastic; also to become cracked or broken.
Did you know?The earliest English sense of craze was literally to crack or shatter something, and only later did it shift into the idea of a mind that has been “broken” or deranged.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*krakjaną
“to crack, split, or break”
Old English
OE
crasian
“to break in pieces; shatter”
Middle English
ME
crasen
“to break, shatter; weaken or impair”
14th–15th Century
English
crazen
“to make insane; to impair the mind”
Modern English
English
craze
“to become wildly enthusiastic; to crack or damage”