"Well, I'm rumbling in this JCB I'm 5 years old and my dad's a giant, sitting beside me And the engine rattles my bum like berserk While we're singing, ‘Don't forget your shovel if you want to go to w

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Jessicamessica

"Well, I'm rumbling in this JCB I'm 5 years old and my dad's a giant, sitting beside me And the engine rattles my bum like berserk While we're singing, ‘Don't forget your shovel if you want to go to work’" What does 'berserk' mean here? I've found that it is an ancient Scandinavian warrior frenzied in battle and held to be invulnerable, but in the case above what do you think it means? Thank you!

19 feb 2023 11:53

Risposte · 7

You're right that the word comes from Old Norse. The words that come from the North are always the most colorful in English. You understand its meaning but it doesn't work in this sentence for grammatical reasons. "Berserk" is an adjective, not an adverb. An adjective cannot modify a verb. In this sentence, it is being used to modify the verb "rattle", so that is an error. It is OK, though, as an example of colloquial English.

19 febbraio 2023

I would say '. . like mad', which is what 'berserk' means. If someone 'goes berserk' they are very agitated or angry, or they are behaving in a crazy way. I didn't know about the Viking warrior reference - it's interesting.

19 febbraio 2023