"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 31/10/17 (barmy, balmy)

I had a nice e-mail in from Tom Dixon. He said, "Why is BARMY and BALMY used interchangeably?" So balmy with the L, and barmy with the R. He said, "I always thought balmy reffered to weather". He's absolutely right. Balmy of weather with the L is a correct adjective, but for centuries, we've been using the two in parallel to mean also somebody who's a little bit foolish, a little bit mad, if you like, if they're a bit barmy. So I thought I would give you the origin of those two words cos they are very different, but they're quite informative, I think. If you take the balmy,the weather with the L, that goes back to balm in the 13th century, ehich is an aromatic substamce consisting of resins that are mixed with oil. Much prised for their medicinal properties as well as their fragrance. It was widly prised for treating wounds. It's been used in many military endeavours.  Used to soothe and to heal and also used to preserve the dead many centuries ago. Of course, we preserve, if you excuse the pun, the balm in embalming. We use the same resin to preserve the daed. On to the weather, though. If something is balmy, it's soothing or gentle, so you've got this idea of something that heals wounds, that calms things down. And mild, gentle weather, perhaps soothing weather, if you like, hence was called balmy quite early on. But that sense of mad or slightly crazy crept in about three centuries ago, so it was there quite early on, and perhaps people were thinking that old people, particularly, were a bit foppish, a bit mild-mannered, a little bit soft in the head, perhaps that was the link there. But barmy is the correct adjective to use if you do want to say somebody is a little bit foolish. It's used rather affectionately these days. That goes back to the froth in the head of beer.  That is called barm. It's part of fermentation process and, again, a couple of centuries ago, inmates in lunatic assylum were said to be frothing in the mouth so much, so exited and excitable that they were said to be barmy just like that froth in the head of beer.