MAD COW DISEASE

(Health and Fitness) Colloquially, BSE. Etymology: So nicknamed because the disease affects the brain and central nervous system of the infected cows, causing them to stagger, fall down, or generally behave as though deranged. History and Usage: For history, see BSE. Although only a popular nickname for the disease (originally popularized by journalists), mad cow disease came to be used in a number of reputable sources without inverted commas. It caught the popular imagination to such an extent that a number of humorous variations were coined during 1989 and 1990; most were one-off instances like the examples printed below, but mad bull disease (making use of the pun with the stock-market concept of bullishness) cropped up quite frequently in financial reports. Mad cow disease itself is sometimes shortened to mad cow. Fresh call for bigger 'mad cow' payouts. headline in The Times 6 Feb. 1990, p. 6 The process could be accelerated...with salmonella infection on the increase and the frightening spectre of mad cow disease crossing the species barrier. Health Guardian May/June 1990, p. 1 Fears are growing that the continuing--perhaps worsening--problems associated with mad cow disease could accelerate what many regard as an alarming drift from the land. Guardian 9 June 1990, p. 4 School BSE, or mad classroom disease, exists largely as a result of the ridiculous notion that a teacher's primary duty is to make lessons interesting. Daily Telegraph 21 June 1990, p. 14 What we have here is a bompin' stompin' monsta groova, a toe tanglin', heart manglin', floor fanglin' 125 bananas per minute of sheer joy--mad fruit disease in the area. Sounds 28 July 1990, p. 24