violently or destructively frenzied; wild; crazed; deranged: He suddenly went berserk.
noun
(sometimes initial capital letter)Scandinavian Legend. Also ber·serk·er.an ancient Norse warrior who fought with frenzied rage in battle, possibly induced by eating hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Origin of berserk
1865–70; < Old Norseberserkr, equivalent to ber- (either *ber-, base of bjǫrnbear2 or berrbare1) + serkrsark, shirt, armor
Related formsber·serk·ly, adverbber·serk·ness, noun
frenziedly violent or destructive (esp in the phrase go berserk)
noun
Also called: berserkera member of a class of ancient Norse warriors who worked themselves into a frenzy before battle and fought with insane fury and courage
Word Origin for berserk
C19: Icelandic berserkr, from björn bear + serkr shirt
1844, from berserk (n.) "Norse warrior," by 1835, an alternative form of berserker (1822), a word which was introduced by Sir Walter Scott, from Old Norse berserkr (n.) "raging warrior of superhuman strength;" probably from *ber- "bear" + serkr "shirt," thus literally "a warrior clothed in bearskin." Thus not from Old Norse berr "bare, naked."
Thorkelin, in the essay on the Berserkir, appended to his edition of the Krisini Saga, tells that an old name of the Berserk frenzy was hamremmi, i.e., strength acquired from another strange body, because it was anciently believed that the persons who were liable to this frenzy were mysteriously endowed, during its accesses, with a strange body of unearthly strength. If, however, the Berserk was called on by his own name, he lost his mysterious form, and his ordinary strength alone remained. ["Notes and Queries," Dec. 28, 1850]
The adjectival use probably is from such phrases as berserk frenzy, or as a title (Arngrim the Berserk).
