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Hey, where did my reply go?!!
Well, since my computer still has it in its memory, here is it once
more (seems like the poor sucker can't handle Unicode):
--- Adam Walker skrzypszy:
> > I'm working on C-a word for crazy. I'm pretty sure
> > there will be a formal word based on L. insanus and
> > I'm likely to include one based on Ar. lawqa (source
> > of Sp. loco and Pt. louco) but before I make a
> > definite choice I'd like to know if anyone out there
> > knows the etymologies of these --
> >
> > It. pazzo, Sc. pazzu
> > Sc. mattu
> > Ct. boig
> > Rm. nebun
> > Rm. smintit
The Romanian "nebun" is obviously derived from Latin ne-bonus "not-
good". In Dutch, "niet goed" is one out of many legitimate ways of
saying that someone is insane in some way.
"Smintit": yes, it could be from "ex mente" or something, but somehow
I doubt that. Another possibility is a Slavic background:
Polish "smutny" or "sme~tny" means "sad", and I guess the Common
Slavic word must have been "smo~tU".
About "pazzo": AHD links it to "patsy" ("Perhaps from Italian pazzo,
fool, from Old Italian paccio.") But I realise that that doesn't
answer your question. For the rest, all I could find was this (from
another list):
"
"Cardinal Wolsey's fool was named Patch. The Italian word 'pazzo' is
definited by Florio as 'a fool, a patch, a mad-man' in Queen Anna's
New World of Words (1611)"
I am an Italian and this note is very interesting to me, because the
etymology of our word 'pazzo' is defined by scholars as uncertain.
Some say it comes from Latin word 'patiens' (patient), but it is not
too much convincing, because with 'pazzo' we intend a furious or very
queer fellow, not a patient or sick one. I think that Florio's
suggestion is very keen, because we in some dialects (and Neapolitan
among others) have the word 'pacce' (that is pronounced just 'patch')
that means 'pazzo' (i.e. fool), and besides there is the
word 'pacciariello' that means a particular figure of Naples' old
days: a sort of popular fool, all dressed with a patched dress and
many little harness-bells, who would go through all the city telling
news in a comic and satiric way. I am told that therty years ago it
was possible to find still one or two of them through Naples' streets.
The word 'pazziare' is a Neapolitan verb that means 'to play' (but
not 'to recite') and to 'joke' or 'to make fun'.
But the word 'pazzo' appears in literary documents since late XIII
cent. Dante too uses it .
[...] Might it be a word carried through Medieval Europe by wandering
jesters?
"
Jan