The world has gone bonkers all over again  Dizzee Rascal at
Ketners Club, London, Braitain - 14 May 2009 'Some people think
I'm bonkers/But I just think I'm free.' Photograph: Rex Features
Perhaps not since it ruled the school playgrounds of the 1980s
has the word "bonkers" enjoyed such a moment in the sun. But in
recent weeks the word has bounded back into common parlance,
thanks to the Dizzee Rascal single of the same name.  Bonkers,
which debuted at No 1 in the UK singles chart three weeks ago,
was produced by Armand Van Helden, and its chorus runs: "Some
people think I'm bonkers/But I just think I'm free." The word
"bonkers" is repeatedly intoned in a voice that is belly-deep
and robotic.  Bonkers is a British word that, according to Word
Detective, the online etymological resource, first cropped up in
the early 20th century, then meaning "light-headed, giddy" or
"slightly drunk". The word evolved to mean insanity at some
point after the second world war, but this is now the accepted
usage.  Quite where