[DVBC] BONKERS -- Where did the word come from?

[Bob LaDrew]

    It was indeed Chris Ann Martha (the lady with three first names) who suggested in early 2000 that "Go Bonkers!" be used as the DVBC slogan. 
    According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest known use of the word bonk as a sudden attack of fatigue was by the Daily Mail in 1952 ("He hoped to ward off that sinking feeling which comes after prolonged effort and which athletes call 'bonk'".
    The origin of bonkers as meaning mad or "crackers" is unknown. The earliest known listing of it was in the Partridge Dictionary of Forces' Slang in 1948: light in the head; slightly drunk. Perhaps from bonk, a blow or punch on the bonce or head.
    As of 1984, bonk had also come to have the meaning "an act of sexual intercourse," as in "Did you have a good bonk last night?"
    --Bob LaDrew
    
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Christine Martha 
  To: dvbc-list at dvbc.org 
  Sent: Friday, March 09, 2007 6:37 PM
  Subject: [DVBC] BONKERS -- Where did the word come from?


  Any etymologists out there?    I made fun of the term "bonkers" from the old slang expression "Go Bonkers!" years ago.   

  However, there's a street near me named Boncoeur Road.  Of course bons coeurs is French for "good hearts"  and for bicycling -- good legs, good lungs, and good backsides!

  So what is the origin of the term "bonkers?"

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