mayhem

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English mayme, mahaime, from Anglo-Norman mahaim (“mutilation”), from Old French meshaing (“bodily harm, loss of limb”), from Proto-Germanic *maidijaną (“to cripple, injure”) (compare Middle High German meidem, meiden (“gelding”), Old Norse meiða (“to injure”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (maidjan, “to alter, falsify”)),[1] from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to change”). More at mad. The original meaning referred to the crime of maiming, the other senses derived from this.

Another possible etymology derives the Old French from Provençal maganhar, composed of mal (“evil”) and ganhar (“to obtain, receive”) (compare with Spanish ganar and Italian gavagnare and guadagnare), so literally "to obtain, receive something evil).

The sense "chaos" may have arisen by popular misunderstanding of the common journalese expression "rioting and mayhem". (Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈmeɪhɛm/,
  • (US, variant) IPA(key): /ˈmeɪəm/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Noun

mayhem (usually uncountable, plural mayhems)

  1. A state or situation of great confusion, disorder, trouble or destruction; chaos.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:disorder, Thesaurus:commotion
    to cause mayhem
    What if the legendary hero Robin Hood had been born into the mayhem of the 20th century?
    In all the mayhem, some children were separated from their parents.
    • 1981 May 27, William G. Tucker, “George, Keynes, Reagan, Rabbit and Hat”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN, page A27:
      In the 1870's, a young newspaper editor named Henry George walked the streets of San Francisco lamenting the paradoxical economic mayhem that lay all around him.
    • 1992 May 19, Dan Quayle, Reflections on Urban America:
      Yes, I can understand how people were shocked and outraged by the verdict in the Rodney King trial. But, my friends, there is simply no excuse for the mayhem that followed.
    • 1998, Anton Szandor La Vey, Satan Speaks!:
      Available in an instant, it can be firmly grasped and employed to scrape, gouge, rake, and generally wreak mayhem on any pest who accelerates into assaultive status.
    • 2014, Emma Trevayne, Flights and Chimes and Mysterious Times:
      Jack lifted the binoculars to his eyes, and it was difficult not to laugh at the utter mayhem. Faeries ripped plumes from helmets; soldiers found their pistols dangled just out of reach.
    • 2021 January 7, Donald Trump, A Message from President Donald J. Trump:
      Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem.
    • 2023 August 14, Kari Paul, “Robotaxi breakdowns cause mayhem in San Francisco days after expansion vote”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:
      One TikTok user recorded a Cruise vehicle causing “mayhem” outside of the festival where it was stuck at an angle in the middle of the street.
    • 2023 December 31, Matthew Weaver, “‘Absolute mayhem’: Eurostar passengers tell of stress and tears”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:
      Andrew and Fiona Eyre, both 52, from Sheffield, had been looking forward to their trip to Paris since booking it in September, but their train was also cancelled. “It was absolute mayhem and the lack of communication was just disgusting,” Andrew said.
  2. Infliction of violent injury on a person or thing.
    The fighting dogs created mayhem in the flower beds.
    • 1870–1871 (date written), Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company [et al.], published 1872, →OCLC:
      This same man […] beat himself weary upon me with a raw hide, I not resisting, and then pantingly threatened me with permanent disfiguring mayhem, if ever again I should introduce his name into print […] .
    • 1908, Jack London, The Iron Heel‎, New York: The Macmillan Company:
      “Tell me,” I said, “when one surrenders his personal feelings to his professional feelings, may not the action be defined as a sort of spiritual mayhem?”
  3. (law) The maiming of a person by depriving them of the use of any of their limbs which are necessary for defense or protection.
    to commit mayhem
    • 1912, Arthur Cheney Train, “Tricks of the Trade”, in Courts and Criminals‎:
      There is a story told of a case where a notorious character was charged with the unusual crime of “mayhem”—biting off another man's finger. The defendant's counsel secured adjournment after adjournment—no one knew why.
    • 1917, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, chapter IV, in Piccadilly Jim‎, New York: Dodd, Mead and Company:
      "Well, it's a funny thing, but I can't get rid of the impression that at some point in my researches into the night life of London yestreen I fell upon some person to whom I had never been introduced and committed mayhem upon his person."
  4. (law) The crime of damaging things or harming people on purpose.

Derived terms

Translations
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Verb

mayhem (third-person singular simple present mayhems, present participle mayheming, simple past and past participle mayhemed)

  1. (archaic, law) To commit mayhem.

References
  1. Philip Babcock, ed., Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, s.v. "mayhem" (Springfield, Mass: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1993.

Further reading
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