funny farm
4
9.9
- noun
- Slur
:
manicomio (ofensivo)
- After struggling with his mental health, he was admitted to the funny farm for treatment.
Examples
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But I think that this good old boy started worrying so much that he finally just went crazy, and they carried him off to the funny farm in a straightjacket.
Fiction book (1990) -
Vic's getting out of the funny farm tomorrow.
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I feel ready for the funny farm.
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Yeah, when you going back to the funny farm?
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What is this, the funny farm?
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First, welcome to the funny farm.
Blog text (29) -
Of all the millions of guys in this town, I wind up with a candidate for the funny farm.
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A one-way ticket to the funny farm!
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One more frigging day, I'd be ready for the funny farm with these people.
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Rats, sheep, goats... sometimes I wonder why I came to this funny farm in the first place.
Blog text (29)
Synonyms
26
8.0
A very noisy, chaotic place often used to describe a mental hospital or busy shop
13
9.9
A rude informal word for a hospital for people with mental illness
4
9.2
A noisy place where many people shout and act in a confused way
1
9.9
A hospital where people with mental illness lived and got treatment in the past
How Offensive
- Slur
18
9.9
- Slur
4
9.9
- Archaic
64
7.5
- Archaic
38
2.8
19
3.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
funny + farm
While 'funny' (strange/odd) plus 'farm' (a place) gives a motivated image of 'a place for odd people', the specific slang sense 'psychiatric hospital' is culturally specific and not directly deducible from the parts. Because the overall meaning requires familiarity with colloquial/pejorative usage rather than straightforward composition, it is partially but not fully transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Funny farm probably began as a simple image of an old mental hospital where people were kept on a farm and some acted funny. That's why it came to mean 'a psychiatric hospital', but the term is now considered offensive.