The Collaborative International Dictionary
Berserk \Ber"serk\, Berserker \Ber"serk*er\, n. [Icel. berserkr.]
(Scand. Myth.) One of a class of legendary heroes, who fought frenzied by intoxicating liquors, and naked, regardless of wounds.
--Longfellow.One who fights as if frenzied, like a Berserker.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
alternative form of berserk (q.v.), from Old Norse berserkr, accusative of berserk. This is the oldest form of the word in its revival in Modern English (1822), and perhaps Scott, who introduced it, mistook the -r for an agent-noun suffix. Further compicated because it has the form of the Old Norse plural, and English berserker sometimes is plural.
Wiktionary
n. 1 a berserk (gloss: a crazed Norse warrior who fought in a frenzy) 2 One who fights as if frenzied, like a berserker. 3 (lb en science fiction) A type of von Neumann probe whose mission is to exterminate alien lifeforms.
WordNet
n. one of the ancient Norse warriors legendary for working themselves into a frenzy before a battle and fighting with reckless savagery and insane fury [syn: berserk]
Wikipedia
A berserker is a Norse warrior who fights with great rage.
Berserker or berzerker may refer to:
In fiction:
- Berserker probe, a hypothetical variant of the Von Neumann probe that has been deliberately (or inadvertently) designed to sterilize life and life-bearing exoplanets
- Berserker (Saberhagen), a space opera series of Fred Saberhagen about autonomous spaceships programmed to kill all life
- Berzerker (comics), a member of the Morlocks and the Tunnelers in the Marvel comics universe
- Berserker (comics), a comic book series by Top Cow
- Berserker (Fate/stay night), a character in the computer game and anime Fate/stay night
- Berserker (Fate/Zero), a character in the novel Fate/Zero
- Berserker, a bonus character from the video game Soulcalibur II
- Khorne Bezerkers, powerful close combat units in Warhammer 40,000
- Berserker (character class), a character class in a number of role-playing games
- Berserker, a card in the video games Lost Kingdoms and Lost Kingdoms II
- Berserkers, a feral breed of monsters in the film Nightbreed
- Berserkers, a group of recurring minor villains in the animated television series Thundercats
- Berserker, a female from the Locust Horde in the Gears of War series
On screen:
- Berserker (1987 film), a "slasher" horror film
- Berserker (2004 film), a film based on the Norse concept of the berserker
- " The Mark of the Berserker", a two-part story in The Sarah Jane Adventures
In music:
- The Berzerker, a grindcore/industrial metal band from Australia
- Berserker (Scratch Acid album), a 1986 EP by noise rock band Scratch Acid
- Berserker (Jane album), the third album by experimental group Jane
- Berserker (Gary Numan album), a 1984 album, the first Numan album to be released under his self-employed record label
- "Berserker", a metal song by Love Among Freaks from the Clerks soundtrack (and also the name of Jay's Russian cousin's metal band and song he sings by the same title in the movie Clerks).
- " Bärsärkar marsch", a song by Dia Psalma
- "Berserkers" (Black Label Society song), a song by Black Label Society from their album 1919 Eternal
Berserker may also refer to:
- John Nord, a professional wrestler known as The Berzerker
- Berserker, Queensland, a suburb in Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia
Berserkers (or berserks) were champion Norse warriors who are primarily reported in the Old Norse literature to have fought in a nearly uncontrollable, trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the English word berserk. These Viking champions would often go into battle without mail-coats; the word "berserk" meant going into battle wearing only wolf or animal skins. Berserkers are attested to in numerous Old Norse sources.
The Úlfhéðnar (singular Úlfheðinn), another term associated with berserkers, mentioned in the Vatnsdæla saga, Haraldskvæði and the Völsunga saga, were said to wear the pelt of a wolf when they entered battle. Úlfhéðnar are sometimes described as Odin's special warriors: "[Odin's] men went without their mailcoats and were mad as hounds or wolves, bit their shields...they slew men, but neither fire nor iron had effect upon them. This is called 'going berserk'." In addition, the helm-plate press from Torslunda depicts (below) a scene of Odin with a berserker—"a wolf skinned warrior with the apparently one-eyed dancer in the bird-horned helm, which is generally interpreted as showing a scene indicative of a relationship between berserkgang... and the god Odin"—with a wolf pelt and a spear as distinguishing features.
Berserker (a.k.a. Berserker: The Nordic Curse) is a 1987 horror film in the " slasher film" genre, in which a Viking berserker serves as the killer. It was written and directed by Jefferson Richard.
Berserker is a fantasy-action-horror film based on Norse mythology. It was written, directed and produced by Paul Matthews and had its main release in 2004.
Berserker is an EP, the final release by Austin, Texas noise rock band Scratch Acid. Although it is now out of print, it can be found as tracks 22-27 on the compilation album The Greatest Gift.
Berserker reached #7 in the UK Indie Chart.
The Berserker series is a series of space opera science fiction short stories and novels by Fred Saberhagen, in which robotic self-replicating machines strive to destroy all life.
These Berserkers, named after the human berserker warriors of Norse legend, are doomsday weapons left over from an interstellar war between two races of extraterrestrials. They all have machine intelligence, and their sizes range from that of an asteroid, in the case of an automated repair and construction base, down to human size (and shape) or smaller. The Berserkers' bases are capable of manufacturing more and deadlier Berserkers as need arises.
The Berserker stories (published as novels and short stories) depict the fight between Berserkers and the sentient species of the Milky Way Galaxy: Homo sapiens (referred to as "Earth-descended" or "ED" humans, or as "Solarians") is the only sentient species aggressive enough to counter Berserkers.
Berserker is the third album released by Jane, composed of Animal Collective member Panda Bear and Scott Mou. Berserker is Jane's first release on Paw Tracks.
The songs consist mostly of Mou sampling other musicians' backing tracks. According to Lennox, "It’s like a mix CD with toasting over the top [...]. [But] we make the songs our own because the way we move from track to track is unique.".
Berserker is the eighth studio album, and sixth under his own name, by musician Gary Numan, released in 1984. It was his first album to be released under Numan's own record label, Numa Records.
Berserker is a new series of American comic books printed by Top Cow Productions. The comic first appeared in 2009 with issue #0 on the Top Cow website and the first issue printed in June 2009.
The series is produced by Milo Ventimiglia (best known for his role of Peter Petrelli on the TV series Heroes) and Russ Cundiff of DiVide Pictures. It is authored by Rick Loverd, drawn by Jeremy Haun, colored by Dave McCaig with covers drawn by Dale Keown.
Usage examples of "berserker".
The berserker made a dark, irregular blot against giant swirls of bright nebula that were far too distant to provide a hiding place, the stuff of the galaxy in an agelong expulsion from the galactic heart.
From allover the island people came to give honor to the new battle chieftain and to gaze with curiosity upon the foreign-born berserker who could wield the shapeshifting magic of their ancestors.
Vaguely, Julius had been picturing a thousand, or at least several hundred, berserker battlecraft swarming around the planetoid.
Solarians, whose autopilot had now reduced their rate of closure to only a few kilometers per minute, were able to get a better look at the antique forcefield bonds that held the berserker and the bioresearch station together.
This small portion of the machine held in its memory much of the research results from the berserker bioresearch stations.
It was a tremendously armored braincase whose only purpose was the protection and support of the berserker computer gear that it contained.
Somewhere on the inner surface of the Fortress, surrounded by smashed Dardanian glass roofs, a row of berserkers stood as if for inspection by some commanding machine.
He supposedly fed his warriors gammelost for lunch prior to battle, thus turning them into berserkers.
Polly, from the medical people, from Iskander who came in often and from Gujar who came in once to visit him, Domingo learned, a little at a time, the details he was unable to remember of what had happened to him and the others who had been examining the wrecked berserker.
And just where did the berserker compute that it was taking the biolab and its billion preborn captives?
We do not fight cowards, we do not fight mythical Scandian berserkers, we not fight simpletons.
The members of this particular berserker horde were all the scarier, because they cunningly remained just out of visibility, concealing their shapes and sizes from him.
He had sent a berserker looking for Chen Shizuoka to try to assure himself of proof.
Gunfighting a berserker, one that knew at least approximately where you were trying to stay hidden, was not the surest way to make a long-term contribution.
Here, in the whirlpool of European races, the Ugric tribe bore down from Iceland the fighting spirit which Thor and Wodin gave them, which their Berserkers displayed to such fell intent on the seaboards of Europe, aye, and of Asia and Africa too, till the peoples thought that the werewolves themselves had come.