Etymograph

English

Mad Lib

Blend of mad + ad lib; Mad Libs is the brand name for the packaged game.

A blend of mad + ad lib

Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- ‘to change’

…

Proto-Germanic *maidijaną ‘to change’

Old English *mǣdan

Old English ġemǣdan

Middle English mad

English mad

New Latin ad libitum ‘at one's pleasure, allowing freedom to improvise’

English ad lib

The story

Blend of mad + ad lib; Mad Libs is the brand name for the packaged game.

Today it means

noun A humorously nonsensical story created from a template with blanks for certain elements. One participant supplies words to fill the blanks (e.g. "nose" where a body part is required), and the other reads the resulting story.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Mad Lib

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