If you haven’t heard by now, the American press recently picked up on an interesting linguistic phenomenon in Norway, where the word “Texas” is slang for “crazy.”

Indeed, it turns out that for several years Norwegians have used the word to describe a situation that is chaotic, out of control or excitingly unpredictable (The crowd at the concert last night was totally Texas!).

While this may seem like a bit of a stretch to many American English speakers, when examined through the lens of linguistics it’s actually a pretty natural extension of the word Texas.

How new meanings emerge

It’s fairly common for a word’s meaning to shift over time. Speakers will often use a word in a new way that applies to just one aspect of the term’s earlier connotations, and emphasizing this single aspect will eventually narrow the word’s meaning, depending on its context.

In fact, “crazy” itself is currently undergoing multiple meaning changes. More broadly, it was traditionally used to convey insane or aberrant thinking.