Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: In a tizzy

Whoa... sometimes (especially when I go overboard on coffee), I get in a tizzy and can't even think straight.

In a tizzy.

Now, where did that come from? It sounds very 19th century.... but is it?

Time to look around and find out!

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The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer directs me to check out "in a dither." So, I do.

in a dither. Also, all of a dither; in a flutter or tizzy. In a state of tremulous agitation. The noun dither dates from the early 1800s and goes back to the Middle English verb didderen, "to tremble"; in a flutter dates from the mid-1700s; in a tizzy dates from about 1930 and is of uncertain origin.

So, if I want any of my Silver Rush characters to be "in a state of tremulous agitation," I guess they had better be in a dither or in a flutter... forget the tizzy!

Too. Much. Caffeine... puts me in a tizzy. (Edvard Munch, 1893, The Scream, oil, tempera and pastel on cardboard, 91 x 73 cm, National Gallery of Norway)