mayhem
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmeɪhɛm/
ipa: /ˈmeɪəm/
Forms: form: mayhems
form: maihem
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”)), 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".
Senses: examples: text: to cause mayhem
text: What if the legendary hero Robin Hood had been born into the mayhem of the 20th century?
text: In all the mayhem, some children were separated from their parents.
text: 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.
ref: 1981 May 27, William G. Tucker, “George, Keynes, Reagan, Rabbit and Hat”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, page A27:
text: We terrified the mare and foal.
 The fox stood still and far too bold.
 So we strung him up, brush neatly folded -
 Mayhem, maybe.
ref: 1988, “Mayhem Maybe”, in Ian Anderson (music), 20 Years of Jethro Tull, performed by Jethro Tull:
text: 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.
ref: 1992 May 19, Dan Quayle, Reflections on Urban America:
text: 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.
ref: 1998, Anton Szandor La Vey, Satan Speaks!:
text: 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.
ref: 2014, Emma Trevayne, Flights and Chimes and Mysterious Times:
text: Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem.
ref: 2021 January 7, Donald Trump, A Message from President Donald J. Trump:
text: 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.
ref: 2023 August 14, Kari Paul, “Robotaxi breakdowns cause mayhem in San Francisco days after expansion vote”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
text: 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.
ref: 2023 December 31, Matthew Weaver, “‘Absolute mayhem’: Eurostar passengers tell of stress and tears”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
synonyms: word: bedlam
word: car crash
word: chaos
word: confusion
word: disarray
word: disorder
word: disorganization
word: dog's breakfast
word: dog's dinner
word: free-for-all
word: fuddle
word: hash
word: hot mess
word: imbroglio
word: mash
word: maze
word: mess
word: misorder
word: mommick
word: muddle
word: mullock
word: muss
word: shambles
word: shemozzle
word: snarl
word: tangle
word: topsy-turviness
word: upfuckery
word: ado
word: argy-bargy
word: bangarang
word: bobbery
word: brouhaha
word: bunfight
word: bustle
word: bust-up
word: chaos
word: clamour
word: clatter
word: commotion
word: disruption
word: disturbance
word: flap
word: foofaraw
word: fracas
word: furor
word: fuss
word: hobbleshaw
word: hoo-ha
word: hoo-hah
word: hubbub
word: hullabaloo
word: hurly-burly
word: kerfuffle
word: mayhem
word: merry hell
word: outcry
word: palaver
word: pandemonium
word: pother
word: quarrel
word: riot
word: rowdydow
word: ruckus
word: rumpus
word: shemozzle
word: shindy
word: splatterdash
word: stir
word: stooshie
word: three-ring circus
word: to-do
word: tomfoolery
word: trouble
word: tumult
word: turmoil
word: unrest
word: uproar
word: upstir
glosses: A state or situation of great confusion, disorder, trouble or destruction; chaos.
examples: text: The fighting dogs created mayhem in the flower beds.
text: 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, […]
ref: 1870–1871 (date written), Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “”, in Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company [et al.], published 1872, →OCLC, page 581:
text: “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?”
ref: 1908 February 19, Jack London, The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC:
glosses: Infliction of violent injury on a person or thing.
examples: text: to commit mayhem
text: 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.
ref: 1912, Arthur Cheney Train, “Tricks of the Trade”, in Courts and Criminals:
text: "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."
ref: 1917, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, chapter IV, in Piccadilly Jim, New York: Dodd, Mead and Company:
topics: law
glosses: The maiming of a person by depriving them of the use of any of their limbs which are necessary for defense or protection.
topics: law
glosses: The crime of damaging things or harming people on purpose.
Derived terms: word: Bayhem
word: mayhemic
Related terms: maim