▪ I. loco, n.1 U.S.
(ˈləʊkəʊ)
[A use of Sp. loco insane, mad.]
a. One of several leguminous plants (chiefly species of Astragalus) found in the western and south-western U.S., which, when eaten by cattle, produce loco-disease. More fully loco-plant, loco-weed.
| 1879 Special Rep. U.S. Dept. Agric. No. 12. 211 The losses among cattle, caused by eating the poisonous loco weed, will perhaps not exceed 1 per cent. 1883 Harper's Mag. Mar. 503/1 The loco, or rattle-weed, met with also in California, drives them [horses] raving crazy. 1884 Amer. Naturalist XVIII. 1148 Experiments..prove that Crotalaria sagittalis, the Rattle-box, is a ‘loco-plant’. 1886 Cornh. Mag. Sept. 297 A weed called ‘loco’ has of late years largely increased in some of the cattle-ranges of Texas and the Indian territory. 1889 Science XIII. 176/1 A curious affection which exists among horses in north-western Texas, known as ‘grass-staggers’, which is caused by eating the ‘loco-weed’, which gives rise to the saying that the horses are locoed. 1904 ‘O. Henry’ in McClure's Mag. Apr. 617/1 If you have ever seen a horse that has eaten loco-weed you will understand what I mean when I say that the passengers get locoed. 1948 Miami (Okla.) Daily News-Rec. 30 June 8/2 Little is heard today of the once troublesome loco weed. 1955 W. Foster-Harris Look of Old West ix. 260 The most famous of the lethal stuff is undoubtedly loco, or crazy, weed... Loco grows all over the West, and a locoed horse is easy to spot. |
b. = loco-disease (Cent. Dict.).
c. attrib. and Comb., as loco-eater, loco-intoxication; loco-disease, a disease in horses, affecting the brain, caused by eating loco-weed; loco weed = marijuana, marihuana.
| 1884 Pall Mall G. 23 June 5/1 A healthy horse refuses loco; but if he once by accident acquires the taste, it grows upon him..and at last he dies of loco-intoxication. 1886 Cornh. Mag. Sept. 297 The animal has become a confirmed ‘loco-eater’. 1889 Syd. Soc. Lex., Loco-disease. 1935 A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 72/2 Loco weed, mariahuana; hemp; hashish. 1960 Time 25 Jan. 87/2 In U.S. slang marijuana is called..loco weed. 1972 Sunday Sun (Brisbane) 2 July 14/3 Detectives from the CIB Drug Squad in Brisbane are becoming quite familiar now with words like..rope and locoweed. |
▪ II. loco, n.2
Short for loco-foco 2.
| 1841 H. Clay Let. 4 July in Private Corr. (1855) 454 The Locos are..opposed to the scheme. 1847 E. Dickinson Lett. (1894) I. 67 To say nothing of its falling into the merciless hands of a loco! |
▪ III. loco, n.3
a. Short for locomotive n. Also attrib.
| 1833 S. Breck Recoll. (1877) App. 274 With the loco..he may start from one city in the morning and return again in the evening. 1869 Bradshaw's Railway Manual XXI. 14 Supt. of Loco. Dept., C. K. Domville, Belfast. 1898 R. Kipling Days Work 215 An eight-wheeled ‘American’ loco. 1901 Daily Chron. 2 Sept. 9/6 Vertical and loco-type boilers. 1955 Times 28 May 10/2 The last named company received important contracts including one for 94 diesel electric locos for the Irish State Transport. 1974 A. MacLean Breakheart Pass iv. 63 To haul this heavy load with a single loco?.. Thirty hours, I'd say. |
b. ˈloco-spotting, train-spotting; the action of noting the numbers (and sometimes other details) of locomotives seen; so loco-spotter, (as back-formation) loco-spot v.
| 1959 Junior Radio Times 25 Sept. 1/1 What is the locospotter looking for? Chiefly the engine number, which normally is painted on the cab side and also on the smoke-box door; secondly, the name if the engine has one; and thirdly, the code of the shed to which the engine is allocated. Ibid., One of the objects of locospotting is to see—or ‘cop’—all the engines in a particular class, marking off the number of each engine as it is observed. 1960 W. E. Hildick Boy at Window xvii. 131 It was a train the boy remembered well from his loco-spotting days. 1968 Listener 21 Mar. 368/2, I loco-spotted 45076..and 45254. 1971 Where Dec. 365/3 They..for many years ran the Loco Spotting Club. |
▪ IV. loco, a. orig. U.S.
(ˈləʊkəʊ)
[a. Sp. loco (see loco n.1). Cf. locoed ppl. a.]
Mad, insane, off one's head.
| 1887 Outing X. 7/1 You won't be able to do nuthin' with 'em, sir; they'll go plumb loco. 1904 Conrad Notromo i. vi. 37 He was old, ugly, learned—and a little ‘loco’—mad, if not a bit of a sorcerer. 1910 C. E. Mulford Hopalong Cassidy iv. 38 Are you loco? Do you mean to let th' rest of th' outfit see that? 1922 Chambers's Jrnl. Mar. 167/2 Some of them would be loco over it. 1929 Ade Let. 8 Feb. (1973) 139 We have gone a little loco on shopping, because..prices seem low. 1934 R. Macaulay Going Abroad i. 13 The young people were, so far as anyone could judge, completely loco. 1965 D. Francis Odds Against 124 He'd been quietly going loco and making hopeless decisions. 1973 ‘A. Hall’ Tango Briefing iv. 46 You heard of ergot?.. There was a case in France, remember? Half a village went loco. |
▪ V. loco, adv. Mus.
(ˈləʊkəʊ)
[It. al loco, at the place.]
(See quots.)
| 1801 Busby Dict. Mus., Loco,..a word in opposition to 8va Alta, and signifying that the notes over which it is placed are not to be played an octave higher, but just as they are written. 1970 Oxf. Compan. Mus. (ed. 10) 578/2 Loco.., ‘place’, used after some sign indicating performance an octave higher or lower than written and reminding the performer that the effect of that sign now terminates. Often the expression used is Al loco, ‘at the place’. |