insane

From Latin īnsānus (“unsound in mind; mad, insane”), from in- + sānus (“sound, sane”).

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈseɪn/
• Rhymes: -eɪn

insane (comparative more insane or insaner, superlative most insane or insanest)

1. Exhibiting unsoundness or disorder of mind; not sane; mad

   Synonyms: delirious, distracted

   • 1936, Dale Carnegie, “Part 1, Chapter 2. THE BIG SECRET OF DEALING WITH PEOPLE”, in How to Win Friends and Influence People‎, page 41:

     What is the cause of insanity?
     Nobody can answer such a sweeping question as that,
     but we know that certain diseases, such as syphilis, break
     down and destroy the brain cells and result in insanity. In
     fact, about one-half of all mental diseases can be attributed
     to such physical causes as brain lesions, alcohol, toxins,
     and injuries. But the other half—and this is the appalling
     part of the story—the other half of the people who go in-
     sane apparently have nothing organically wrong with
     their brain cells. In post-mortem examinations, when their
     brain tissues are studied under the highest-powered micro-
     scopes, they are found to be apparently just as healthy as
     yours and mine.
     Why do these people go insane?

2. Used by, or appropriated to, insane persons

   an insane hospital

   an insane asylum

3. Causing insanity or madness.
4. Characterized by insanity or the utmost folly; ridiculous; impractical

   an insane plan

   an insane amount of money

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 16, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     The preposterous altruism too! […] Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.

• See also Thesaurus:insane

• sane

• insanity

• insane in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• insane in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• insane at OneLook Dictionary Search

• Annies, Sannie, Sienna, inanes, nenias, sienna

From English insane

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.san/

insane (plural insanes)

1. crazy
2. foolish

• “insane” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

insane f pl

1. feminine plural of insano

īnsāne

1. vocative masculine singular of īnsānus

• insane in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• insane in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• insane in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette