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featherynscaleEntries are in, there are ten! (It rhymes, it must be right).
Here are the possible etymologies:
1. Eating undried batshit causes rapid salivation which takes on a white color, like foaming at the mouth due to rabies. Batshit also makes the saliva especially thick, so the person can't talk, and in primitive cultures often resorts to incoherent yelling and gesturing in order to be understood.
2. Bat shit or guano has been harvested in days of yore for lots of miscellaneous needs. Fertilizer. Explosives. Moron repellent. In any case, it can fufil many of these needs because it contains all sorts of interesting chemicals, the inhalation of which (over long periods of time) can make you develop unfortunate psychological attributes. So, "batshit crazy" refers to the syndrome of people who work in and around guano going psychotic due to chemical inhalation.
3. Back in the 'Old West' the use of the Guano Mushroom(a rare fungi that grew in caves and used sparingly by the war shamans of various tribes) as a narcotic has been well documented, and the sad consequences of those who indulged in this vice. While most gentleman prefered back then to get their 'head' on at the saloon or a good old fashioned opium den, some desperate low life sons of bitches used to sprinkle dried up flakes of the Guano Mushroom along their cigarettes and go into psychotic blood rages that temporarily shut off the pain centers of their nervous system. The term 'Batshit crazy' was coined by none other than Doc Holiday when he was describing a time back in Tombstone when a band of desperados got strung out on the guano and went on a rampage that the good Doctor & his friend Wyatt Earp had to put down.
4. The term "batshit crazy" has, like the phrase "crazy like a hatter", its origins in the realm of occupational safety. The phrase was first used after the introduction of gunpowder to Europe. Guano was found to be an excelent source of nitrates and many governments enthusiastically mined batcaves for their wealth. Unfortunately, a powerful psychoactive fungus grows within bat guano and this affected the miners. Just as the mercury used by hatters affected their minds, the fungus in guano affected the miners.
5. The phrase 'batshit crazy' is a literal translation of the Spanish phrase 'guano loco', which is used the same way as in English. It's a slang term that is a filthier, more insulting play on the phrase 'alguno loco' ('someone crazy').
6. This refers to the people who leave a village due to some form of sociopathy, and go live in caves, supposedly to only live on guano. This person has gone 'Batshit crazy', and left.
7. During the height of Peru's golden age of bat guano, around 1840 to 1880, it has been estimated that the Peruvians excavated over 20,000,000 tons of bat guano for export, creating around $2 billion in profits. However, by 1909-10, Peru's guano reserves were severely depleted and could only yield around 48,000 tons of guano a year.
Therefore, since 1909, the Peruvian government has taken steps to conserve its guano reserves by establishing the Bat Guano Administration to better manage their guano reserves by preserving the guano bats and their environment. Such conservation measures include having the islands become off limits to guano companies for half a year to allow the bats to re-accumulate their guano reserves and allow the bats to safely raise their young without having much disruptions from human activity.
'Batshit crazy' was the term applied to the fervor that swept the Guano gatherers on the day that those fields and caves reopened. This was not surprising, as most of them had no income for the other half of the year.
8. As it would happen, bat feces, or guano, as our brothers and sisters to the south say, contains chemicals similar to those used in the making and shaping of hats. These chemicals, after prolonged exposure, can cause mental instability. That's why to two idioms, "mad as a hatter" and "batshit crazy" can be used synonymously.
9. Much like the Inuit have scores of different words for "snow," our culture has developed subtle differentiations for levels of "crazy." Batshit Crazy will usually describe a person who is experiencing an upside-down view of reality, who flies around shrieking at every obstacle, and whose shit piles up in such a manner as to drive other mammals away. Batshit Crazy people tend to congregate in upside-down, shrieking, shitting groups.
10. Batshit crazy refers to a belief in the 18th Century that bat droppings - guano - could be used as an aphrodisiac. Instead they induced delusions, heart palpitations, and incoherent ramblings. Much later, this came to be known colloquially as "batshit crazy".
Here are the possible etymologies:
1. Eating undried batshit causes rapid salivation which takes on a white color, like foaming at the mouth due to rabies. Batshit also makes the saliva especially thick, so the person can't talk, and in primitive cultures often resorts to incoherent yelling and gesturing in order to be understood.
2. Bat shit or guano has been harvested in days of yore for lots of miscellaneous needs. Fertilizer. Explosives. Moron repellent. In any case, it can fufil many of these needs because it contains all sorts of interesting chemicals, the inhalation of which (over long periods of time) can make you develop unfortunate psychological attributes. So, "batshit crazy" refers to the syndrome of people who work in and around guano going psychotic due to chemical inhalation.
3. Back in the 'Old West' the use of the Guano Mushroom(a rare fungi that grew in caves and used sparingly by the war shamans of various tribes) as a narcotic has been well documented, and the sad consequences of those who indulged in this vice. While most gentleman prefered back then to get their 'head' on at the saloon or a good old fashioned opium den, some desperate low life sons of bitches used to sprinkle dried up flakes of the Guano Mushroom along their cigarettes and go into psychotic blood rages that temporarily shut off the pain centers of their nervous system. The term 'Batshit crazy' was coined by none other than Doc Holiday when he was describing a time back in Tombstone when a band of desperados got strung out on the guano and went on a rampage that the good Doctor & his friend Wyatt Earp had to put down.
4. The term "batshit crazy" has, like the phrase "crazy like a hatter", its origins in the realm of occupational safety. The phrase was first used after the introduction of gunpowder to Europe. Guano was found to be an excelent source of nitrates and many governments enthusiastically mined batcaves for their wealth. Unfortunately, a powerful psychoactive fungus grows within bat guano and this affected the miners. Just as the mercury used by hatters affected their minds, the fungus in guano affected the miners.
5. The phrase 'batshit crazy' is a literal translation of the Spanish phrase 'guano loco', which is used the same way as in English. It's a slang term that is a filthier, more insulting play on the phrase 'alguno loco' ('someone crazy').
6. This refers to the people who leave a village due to some form of sociopathy, and go live in caves, supposedly to only live on guano. This person has gone 'Batshit crazy', and left.
7. During the height of Peru's golden age of bat guano, around 1840 to 1880, it has been estimated that the Peruvians excavated over 20,000,000 tons of bat guano for export, creating around $2 billion in profits. However, by 1909-10, Peru's guano reserves were severely depleted and could only yield around 48,000 tons of guano a year.
Therefore, since 1909, the Peruvian government has taken steps to conserve its guano reserves by establishing the Bat Guano Administration to better manage their guano reserves by preserving the guano bats and their environment. Such conservation measures include having the islands become off limits to guano companies for half a year to allow the bats to re-accumulate their guano reserves and allow the bats to safely raise their young without having much disruptions from human activity.
'Batshit crazy' was the term applied to the fervor that swept the Guano gatherers on the day that those fields and caves reopened. This was not surprising, as most of them had no income for the other half of the year.
8. As it would happen, bat feces, or guano, as our brothers and sisters to the south say, contains chemicals similar to those used in the making and shaping of hats. These chemicals, after prolonged exposure, can cause mental instability. That's why to two idioms, "mad as a hatter" and "batshit crazy" can be used synonymously.
9. Much like the Inuit have scores of different words for "snow," our culture has developed subtle differentiations for levels of "crazy." Batshit Crazy will usually describe a person who is experiencing an upside-down view of reality, who flies around shrieking at every obstacle, and whose shit piles up in such a manner as to drive other mammals away. Batshit Crazy people tend to congregate in upside-down, shrieking, shitting groups.
10. Batshit crazy refers to a belief in the 18th Century that bat droppings - guano - could be used as an aphrodisiac. Instead they induced delusions, heart palpitations, and incoherent ramblings. Much later, this came to be known colloquially as "batshit crazy".