amok
pronunciation
How to pronounce amok in British English:
UK [əˈmɒk]
How to pronounce amok in American English:
US [əˈmɑk]
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- Adjective:
- in a murderous frenzy as if possessed by a demon
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- Adverb:
- wildly; without self-control
- in a murderous frenzy
Word Origin
- amok
- amok: [17] Amok is Malayan in origin, where it is an adjective, amoq, meaning ‘fighting frenziedly’. Its first brief brush with English actually came in the early 16th century, via Portuguese, which had adopted it as a noun, amouco, signifying a ‘homicidally crazed Malay’. This sense persisted until the late 18th century, but by then the phrase run amok, with all its modern connotations, was well established, and has since taken over the field entirely. The spelling amuck has always been fairly common, reflecting the word’s pronunciation.
- amok (adv.)
- in verbal phrase run amok first recorded 1670s, from Malay amuk "attacking furiously." Earlier the word was used as a noun or adjective meaning "a frenzied Malay," originally in the Portuguese form amouco or amuco.There are some of them [the Javanese] who ... go out into the streets, and kill as many persons as they meet. ... These are called Amuco. ["The Book of Duarte Barbosa: An Account of the Countries Bordering on the Indian Ocean and Their Inhabitants," c. 1516, English translation] Compare amuck.
Example
- 1. This is political correctness running amok .
- 2. That 's the going rate for zimbabwe 's highest denomination note , the biggest ever produced for legal tender -- and a national symbol of monetary policy run amok .
- 3. Then the electricity went off at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power station , and a random act of natural destruction became a parable of technological society run amok .
- 4. Crooks and spooks run amok in russia .
- 5. In the west , there seems to be a strong tendency over decades to view robots as something evil , like technology run amok .