Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: BERSERKER |
BERSERKERNoun1. One who fights as if frenzied, like a Berserker. 2. One of a class of legendary heroes, who fought frenzied by intoxicating liquors, and naked, regardless of wounds. |
Date "BERSERKER" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1871. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Berserker Grandson of the eight-handed Starkader and the beautiful Alfhilde, called bær-serce (bare of mail) because he went into battle unharnessed. Hence, any man with the fighting fever on him. "You say that I am berserker. And ... baresark I go to-morrow to the war."-Rev. C. Kingsley; Hereward the Wake. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Fred Saberhagen's Berserker series is a space opera in which robotic machines intend to destroy all life.
"Berserker" stories — many of the books are short story collections — describe humans' fight with the Berserkers, ancient asteroid-sized killing machines designed to destroy all living things in the universe. The Berserkers are a doomsday weapon from an ancient interstellar war. Humans are the only sentient species that is aggressive enough to put up a fight.
Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers.
The first story, "Without a Thought" (1963), was basically a puzzle story where the protagonist faced a problem of simulating intelligence to fool an enemy trying to determine whether there was any conscious being present on a ship.
Saberhagen came up with the Berserker as the rationale for the story on the spur of the moment, but the basic concept was so fruitful, with so many possible ramifications, that he has used it as the basis of many of his stories. A common theme in the stories is of how the apparent weaknesses and inconsistencies of living beings are actually the strengths that enable the machines' eventual defeat.
In later stories there are "goodlife" — i.e., sophont traitors or collaborators — who cooperate with the berserker machines to stay alive, at least for a while.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Berserker (Movie)."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Violence | Berserk, berserker; fury, dragon, demon, tiger, beldame, Tisiphone, Megaera, Alecto, madcap, wild beast; fire eater; (blusterer). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: BERSERKER |
| English words defined with "BERSERKER": Baresark. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Taggart: Berserker (1997) Berserker (1987) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "BERSERKER" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "BERSERKER" is used about 3 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 3 | 202,518 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "BERSERKER": berserker rage ♦ go berserker. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
berserker | 51 |
band berserker | 5 |
berserker sword | 4 |
berserker clerk | 3 |
anime berserker | 2 |
berserker lyrics | 2 |
berserker shirt t | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "BERSERKER"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | trim (baresark, berserk, brave, cant, courageous, dare devil, daring, Dauntless, Doughty, fearless, gallant, game, Hardy, lion-hearted, manful, plucky, reckless, spunky, stouthearted, valiant, valor, valorous, valour), luftëtar (baresark, berserk, campaigner, combatant, extirpator, fighter, guerilla, warrior), i tërbuar (berserk, enraged, frantic, frenzied, furious, mad, rabid, rampageous, rampant, riotous, wild). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | неустрашим войн (berserk). (various references) | |
Hungarian | vad harcos (berserk). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | erserkerbay.(various references) | |
Russian | берсеркер (berserk), бешеный (baresark, berserk, crazed, frantic, furious, mad, rabid, tearing). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | ludak (berserk, crackpot, lunatic, madman, nut), ludački (crazy, foolish, madman). (various references) | |
Swedish | bärsärk (baresark, berserk). (various references) | |
Turkish | vahşi savaşçı. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | відважний (bold, courageous, daring, high-spirited, stalwart, stout), несамовита людина. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "BERSERKER": berserkers. (additional references) | |
| |
"BERSERKER" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: berserkr, berzerker, beserker. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-e-e-e-k-r-r-r-s" | |
-2 letters: berserk, reekers. | |
-3 letters: breeks, reeker, reseek, seeker. | |
-4 letters: beers, brees, esker, kerbs, reeks, resee, serer. | |
-5 letters: beer, bees, bree, brrr, ekes, errs, kerb, rebs, reek, rees, seek, seer, sere, skee. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-e-e-e-k-r-r-r-s" | |
+1 letter: berserkers. | |
+4 letters: farkleberries, heartbreakers, rubberneckers, strikebreaker. | |
+5 letters: checkerberries, strikebreakers. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Derivations 10. Anagrams 11. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
