Literary notes about barmy (AI summary)
The term "barmy" is employed in literature as a versatile descriptor signifying foolishness, eccentricity, or even a kind of endearing madness. Often used in humorous or colloquial contexts, it conveys a playful sense of being "off one's rocker" or overly preoccupied with trivial matters, as when a character laments worrying "barmy over a little thing like a watch" [1] or when another is casually asked if he’s become "barmy" [2]. At times, the word is woven into imaginative expressions that blend absurdity with whimsy, such as the depiction of a "barmy breeze" that stirs the natural world [3], or in character nicknames that evoke both affection and exasperation, like the reference to "Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps" in a well-known comic narrative [4]. In its various incarnations, "barmy" captures a spectrum of attitudes towards eccentric behavior, merging everyday levity with a subtle critique of the seemingly irrational.
- one minute, and yet worry myself barmy over a little thing like a watch the next."
— from Sinister Street, vol. 2 by Compton MacKenzie - “Why do you consider him 'barmy,' as you put it?”
— from The Unspeakable Perk by Samuel Hopkins Adams - The little winds is stirrin' in the trees, Where little birds is chantin' lovers' lays; The music of the sorft an' barmy breeze… Aw, spare me days!
— from The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke by C. J. (Clarence James) Dennis - There was a snap about his work which I had never witnessed before, even in Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps on New Year's Eve.
— from Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
