mad scientist

English

A stereotypical evil mad scientist.

Noun

mad scientist (plural mad scientists)

1. A stock character in popular fiction; a bumbling scientist working on unlikely ways to save the world, or a villainous one bent on destroying it.

   Synonyms: Doctor Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein, Dr Frankenstein, Frankenstein, frankenstein, mad professor

   • 2010, Margaret Atwood, “Of the madness of mad scientists: Jonathan Swift's Grand Academy”, in Bill Bryson, editor, Seeing Further: The Story of Science and the Royal Society, Mariner Books, →ISBN, page 36:

     The Lagadan projectors [of Jonathan Swift's 1726 satire Gulliver's Travels] were both ridiculous and destructive, but in the middle of the nineteenth century the mad scientist line splits in two, with the ridiculous branch culminating in the Jerry Lewis ‘nutty professor’ comic version, and the other leading in a more tragic direction. Even in ‘alchemist’ tales like the Faustus story, the comic potential was there — Faustus on the stage was a great practical joker — but in darker sagas like Frankenstein this vein is not exploited.

Translations

stock character in popular fiction

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 瘋狂科學家／疯狂科学家 (fēngkuáng kēxuéjiā), 怪博士 (guài bóshì), 瘋狂教授／疯狂教授 (fēngkuáng jiàoshòu)

• Czech: šílený vědec m, šílená vědkyně f
• Esperanto: freneza sciencisto
• Finnish: hullu tiedemies
• French: savant fou m, savante folle f
• Galician: científico tolo m
• German: verrückter Wissenschaftler m, verrückte Wissenschaftlerin f
• Hungarian: őrült tudós
• Japanese: マッドサイエンティスト (maddo saientisuto)
• Polish: szalony naukowiec m
• Spanish: científico loco m, científica loca f