Word of the Week: berserk 

We’re back with more spooky vocabulary! Maybe you’ve heard this word before, but do you know its origin? When someone goes berserk, they become crazy, deranged, overtaken by a violent destructive frenzy. Think unhinged killers with chainsaws or blood-thirsty vampires that have lost all control.  

The term originates from Old Norse, a language that evolved from ancient Viking tongues, with bjorn meaning “bear” and serkr meaning “shirt” or “armor.” Imagine covering up your rational, human behavior with the wild actions of a bear… that’s going berserk.  

This Week at Falvey  

Monday, Oct. 25- Friday, Oct. 29

Distinctive Collections Halloween Selfie Station / Speakers’ Corner

Wednesday, Oct. 27 

Authoring an Open Access (OA) Interdisciplinary Textbook: Michael Pagano on Liquidity, Markets, & Trading in Action / 1:30-2:15 p.m. / Zoom / Register Here 

Friday, Oct. 29

Villanova Gaming Society Meeting / 2:30-4:30 p.m. / Speakers’ Corner / Free & Open to the Public 

This Week in History 

Oct. 27, 1904 – New York Subway Opens 117 Years Ago 

At 2:35 p.m. on the afternoon of October 27, 1904, New York City Mayor George McClellan takes the controls on the inaugural run of the city’s innovative new rapid transit system: the subway. London may have the oldest underground transportation system (opening in 1863) and Boston’s system was the first in the United States (opening in 1897), but the New York subway system is the largest, transporting 4.5 million passengers (about twice the population of New Mexico) daily. 

Jenna Renaud is a graduate student in the Communication Department and graduate assistant in Falvey Memorial Library.