loco
English
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈləʊ.kəʊ/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -əʊkəʊ
Etymology 1
From Italian.
Adverb
loco (not comparable)
- (music) A direction in written or printed music to be returning to the proper pitch after having played an octave higher or lower.
Adjective
loco (comparative more loco, superlative most loco)
- (colloquial) Crazy.
- 1943 April 3, Super-Rabbit, spoken by an unnamed rabbit:
- It's Cottontail Smith, and he's gone plumb loco!
- 1988, Phil Collins (lyrics and music), “Loco in Acapulco”, in Indestructible, performed by Four Tops:
- Going loco down in Acapulco / If you stay too long / Yes, you'll be going loco down in Acapulco / The magic down there is so strong
- 1993, “Insane in the Brain”, in Black Sunday, performed by Cypress Hill:
- Who you trying to get crazy with ése? Don't you know I'm loco?
- 2003, “In da Club”, in Get Rich or Die Tryin', performed by 50 Cent:
- Holla in New York, fo'sho they'll tell you I'm loco
- 2003 December 15, The New Yorker, page 56:
- You know, I’m a little loco. Kinda crazy, zany guy.
- (Southwestern US) Intoxicated by eating locoweed.
- Synonym: pea struck
Translations
Noun
- A certain species of Astragalus or Oxytropis, capable of causing locoism.
- Synonym: locoweed
Verb
loco (third-person singular simple present locos, present participle locoing, simple past and past participle locoed)
- (transitive) To poison with the loco plant; to affect with locoism.
- (transitive, colloquial, by extension) To render insane.
- 1904, Charles Dudley Warner, “The Locoed Novelist”, in The Complete Essays of C. D. Warner:
- They say that he is locoed. The insane asylums of California contain many shepherds.
Related terms
Etymology 3
Clipping of locomotive.
Noun
loco (plural locos)
- (rail transport, informal) A locomotive.
- 1898, Rudyard Kipling, “.007”, in The Day's Work, New York: Doubleday & McClure Co., page 243:
- A locomotive is, next to a marine engine, the most sensitive thing man ever made; and No. .007, besides being sensitive, was new. The red paint was hardly dry on his spotless bumper-bar, his headlight shone like a fireman’s helmet, and his cab might have been a hard-wood-finish parlour. They had run him into the round-house after his trial—he had said good-bye to his best friend in the shops, the overhead travelling-crane—the big world was just outside; and the other locos were taking stock of him.
Derived terms
Translations
French
Etymology
Clipping of locomotive
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /lɔ.ko/
Further reading
- “loco”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Italian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈlɔ.ko/
- Rhymes: -ɔko
- Hyphenation: lò‧co
Etymology 1
From Latin locus, from Old Latin stlocus, from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to put, place, locate”).
Noun
loco m (plural lochi or (obsolete, regional) locora f)
- (archaic, now poetic) Alternative form of luogo (“place, location”)
- mid 1300s–mid 1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto III”, in Inferno [Hell], lines 16–18; republished as Giorgio Petrocchi, editor, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata [The Commedia according to the ancient vulgate], 2nd revised edition, Florence: publ. Le Lettere, 1994:
- ["]Noi siam venuti al loco ov’i’ t’ ho detto / che tu vedrai le genti dolorose / c’ hanno perduto il ben de l’intelletto".
- "We have come to the place wherein I told you that you will see the tormented people who have lost the good of intellect."
- 1350s, anonymous author, “Prologo e primo capitolo [Preface and first chapter]”, in Cronica [Chronicle] (overall work in Old Italian); republished as Giuseppe Porta, editor, Anonimo romano - Cronica, Adelphi, 1979, →ISBN:
- le memorie se facevano con scoiture in sassi e pataffii, li quali se ponevano nelle locora famose dove demoravano moititudine de iente (Rome)
- accounts were made through incisions on rocks and gravestones, which were placed in famed places, where moltitudes of people lived
Adverb
loco
- (Old Italian, now only dialectal) there, in that place
- c. 1260s, Brunetto Latini, chapter VII, in Il tesoretto [The small treasure], lines 769–774; collected in Luigi Di Benedetto, editor, Poemetti allegorico-didattici del secolo XIII [Allegorical-didactical poems from the 13th century], Bari: Laterza, 1941, page 25:
- Questi hanno per ofizio
che lo bene, e lo vizio,
li fatti, e le favelle
ritornano ale celle
ch’i’ v’agio nominate,
e loco son pensate.- Their [the senses'] task is [to see to it] that the good, and the vices, the facts, and the words return to the spaces I have mentioned, and there they're thought.
Further reading
- loco1 in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
Latin
Etymology
From Proto-Italic *stlokāō. Equivalent to locus (“place, location”).[1]
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈlo.koː/, [ˈɫ̪ɔkoː]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈlo.ko/, [ˈlɔːko]
Conjugation
1At least one use of the archaic "sigmatic future" and "sigmatic aorist" tenses is attested, which are used by Old Latin writers; most notably Plautus and Terence. The sigmatic future is generally ascribed a future or future perfect meaning, while the sigmatic aorist expresses a possible desire ("might want to").
2At least one rare poetic syncopated perfect form is attested.
Derived terms
Descendants
References
- “loco”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “loco”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- loco in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
- (ambiguous) heights, high ground: loca edita, superiora
- (ambiguous) rough and hilly ground: loca aspera et montuosa (Planc. 9. 22)
- (ambiguous) level country; plains: loca plana or simply plana
- (ambiguous) uncultivated districts: loca inculta
- (ambiguous) deserts: loca deserta (opp. frequentia)
- (ambiguous) pleasant districts; charming surroundings: loca amoena, amoenitas locorum
- (ambiguous) to be favourably situated: opportuno loco situm or positum esse
- (ambiguous) distant places: loca longinqua
- (ambiguous) to leave a place: discedere a, de, ex loco aliquo
- (ambiguous) to leave a place: egredi loco; excedere ex loco
- (ambiguous) to quit a place for ever: decedere loco, de, ex loco
- (ambiguous) not to stir from one's place: loco or vestigio se non movere
- (ambiguous) to treat as one's own child: aliquem in liberorum loco habere
- (ambiguous) my position is considerably improved; my prospects are brighter: res meae meliore loco, in meliore causa sunt
- (ambiguous) how are you getting on: quo loco res tuae sunt?
- (ambiguous) at this point the question arises: hoc loco exsistit quaestio, quaeritur
- (ambiguous) our (not noster) author tells us at this point: scriptor hoc loco dicit
- (ambiguous) Cicero says this somewhere: Cicero loco quodam haec dicit
- (ambiguous) to set an ambuscade: insidias collocare, locare (Mil. 10. 27)
- (ambiguous) to place some one in ambush: aliquem in insidiis locare, collocare, ponere
- (ambiguous) to dwell in a certain place: domicilium (sedem ac domicilium) habere in aliquo loco
- (ambiguous) to contract for the building of something: opus locare
- (ambiguous) to give, undertake a contract for building a house: domum aedificandam locare, conducere
- (ambiguous) of high rank: summo loco natus
- (ambiguous) of illustrious family: nobili, honesto, illustri loco or genere natus
- (ambiguous) of humble, obscure origin: humili, obscuro loco natus
- (ambiguous) from the lowest classes: infimo loco natus
- (ambiguous) a knight by birth: equestri loco natus or ortus
- (ambiguous) to occupy a very high position in the state: in altissimo dignitatis gradu collocatum, locatum, positum esse
- (ambiguous) to receive tenders for the construction of temples, highroads: locare aedes, vias faciendas (Phil. 9. 7. 16)
- (ambiguous) to let out public works to contract: locare opera publica
- (ambiguous) to reconnoitre the ground: loca, regiones, loci naturam explorare
- (ambiguous) to occupy the high ground: occupare loca superiora
- (ambiguous) to encamp: castra ponere, locare
- (ambiguous) in a favourable position: idoneo, aequo, suo (opp. iniquo) loco
- (ambiguous) to drive the enemy from his position: loco movere, depellere, deicere hostem (B. G. 7. 51)
- (ambiguous) to abandon one's position: loco excedere
- (ambiguous) heights, high ground: loca edita, superiora
- De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 347
Old Spanish
Etymology
Perhaps borrowed from Andalusian Arabic لَوْقَاء (láwqa), from Arabic لَوْقَاء (“stupid”), or from Ancient Greek γλαυκός (glaukós, “clear”). For more, see the modern Spanish descendant.
Adjective
loco (feminine loca, masculine plural locos, feminine plural locas)
- crazy, mad, insane
- c. 1280, Alfonso X, General Estoria, tercera parte, (published by Pedro Sánchez-Prieto Borja and Bautista Horcajada Diezma, 1994, Madrid: Gredos):
- Yo só muy loco entre los omnes, e la sapiencia d'ellos non es comigo, mas la de Dios; ca la que yo é non me la dieron ellos si non Dios.
- I am insane among people, and their wisdom is not with me, but rather God's, for mine was not given to me by them but by God.
Descendants
- Spanish: loco
Portuguese
Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈloko/ [ˈlo.ko]
Audio (Colombia): (file) - Rhymes: -oko
- Syllabification: lo‧co
Etymology 1
Inherited from Old Spanish loco, perhaps from Andalusian Arabic لَوْقَاء (láwqa), from Arabic لَوْقَاء (lawqāʔ), feminine singular form of أَلْوَق (ʔalwaq, “stupid”),[1] by reinterpreting the final Andalusian Arabic -a as the Ibero-Romance -a and back-forming the masculine with -o. Edward Roberts thinks the term is related to Arabic لَاق (lāq, “to soften”),[2] but this verb is of root l-y-q, not l-w-q like أَلْوَق (ʔalwaq). Alternatively, derived from Ancient Greek γλαυκός (glaukós, “clear”). Compare Portuguese louco and Sicilian loccu.
Adjective
loco (feminine loca, masculine plural locos, feminine plural locas, superlative loquísimo)
- crazy, insane, mad, nuts (asserting that something is out of place in the head)
- Synonyms: chiflado, desquiciado, pirado, trastornado
- Estoy loco por ti. ― I am crazy for you, madly in love with you.
- David está muy loco. ― David's really crazy.
- Lorena se pone algo loca cuando bebe. ― Lorena gets a bit crazy when she drinks [alcohol].
- rash, risky, imprudent
- Synonyms: alocado, arrebatado, atolondrado, imprudente, insensato
- una decisión loca de último momento ― a rash decision taken at the last minute
- No sean locos, tómense su tiempo. ― Don't be imprudent, take your time.
- tremendous, terrific, huge, enormous
- malfunctioning, broken and working incorrectly (said of a machine)
- El reloj de la abuela se ha vuelto loco. ― Grandma's clock has started malfunctioning.
- overgrown, rambling
- Synonym: descuidado
- Los arbustos se ven locos, deberías podarlos. ― The bushes look overgrown now, you should trim them.
- El cabello se te ve loco, ve a cortártelo. ― Your hair looks overgrown, go get a haircut.
- loose (pipe fittings, pulley)
- (colloquial) sexy (only with ser)
- Pero qué loca es, qué loca se ve. ― She's so sexy, she looks so sexy.
Noun
loco m (plural locos, feminine loca, feminine plural locas)
- (derogatory) a crazy person; a madman
- Ese es un loco; ten cuidado. ― He is a crazy man, be careful.
- a highly affected homosexual; fruit
- a plant in the genus Astragalus or Oxytropis
Derived terms
- a lo loco
- a tontas y a locas
- algarrobo loco
- cada loco con su tema
- casa de locos
- científico loco
- enfermedad de las vacas locas
- enloquecer
- hacerse el loco
- locamente
- loco como una cabra (“mad as a hatter, mad as a March hare”)
- loco de remate
- locoísmo
- locos y niños dicen la verdad
- locura
- loquear
- loquero
- loquísimo
- malva loca
- más loco que una cabra
- mate del loco
- vaca loca
- viruela loca
See also
References
- Joan Coromines, José A. Pascual (1984) “loco”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico (in Spanish), volumes III (G–Ma), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 683
- Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN
Etymology 2
From Mapudungun [Term?].
Noun
loco m (plural locos)
Further reading
- “loco”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014