Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. extremely jealous, esp. as a victim of cuckoldry.

c.1591		Shakespeare Comedy of Errors II i: dro. e.: Why, mistress, sure my master is horn-mad. adr.: Horn-mad, thou villain! dro. e.: I mean not cuckold-mad.
1604		Marston Malcontent I vii: pietro: I am horn-mad. [...] mendoza: Why? pietro: Why? Thou, thou hast dishonoured my bed.
1619		Two Wise Men and All the Rest Fooles IV ii: I pray your husband giue over to muse on these hidden secrets, for other wise these thoughts may make you horne-mad.
1640		The Wandering Jew 40: Is she gone forth? then his head akes, and heart pants, stayes she out long, then hee’s horn-mad; and runs bellowing like a Bull, up and downe to finde his Cow.
1654		Mercurius Fumigosus 14 30 Aug–6 Sept. 128: Running Horn-mad downstairs, he called divers of his Neighbours about him, telling them, That his Wife had cornuted him.
1663		J. Wilson Cheats IV ii: If my husband should hear you, he would run horn-mad, and knock both our brains out.
1675		Head Art of Wheedling 181: These generous Guests not coming to the house as they were wont, makes the poor Vintner run horn-mad, swearing for the loss of his money.
1686		Behn Lucky Chance III v: ’Tis so, his gentlewoman has been at hot cockles without her husband, and he’s horn-mad upon it.
1696		D. Manley Lost Lover V i: If I am mad, ’tis horn mad.
1714		T. Lucas Lives of the Gamesters (1930) 264: This intolerable usage made Hewitt rave [...] like a horn-mad cuckold.
1721		Penkethman’s Jests 711: It was enough to set a Man Horn-mad to be Dunn’d so early in a Morning.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1788		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd edn) n.p.: Horn Mad. A person extremely jealous of his wife, is said to be horn mad. Also a cuckold, who does not cut or breed his horns easily.
1791		J. Walker Pronouncing Dict. 259/2: Horn mad, perhaps mad as a cuckold.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1822		(con. early 17C) W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel III 48: The man is mad, horn-mad, to boot.
1862		E. de la Bédollière Londres et les Anglais 315/1: horn mad, jaloux.

2. lecherous, maddened by lust; thus horn-madness, the condition of lustfulness; horn-madded, lustful.

c.1597		Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor III v: If I have horns to make me mad, let the proverb go with me; I’ll be horn-mad.
1604		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 1 I iii: I shall be leaner than the new Moone, unlesse I can make him horne mad.
1607		T. Walkington Optic Glasse of Humors 24: We must not like Lapithes drinke our selues horne mad.
c.1618		Massinger & Field Fatal Dowry (1632) III i: I desire not You should grow horne-mad, till you haue a wife.
1630		Tinker of Turvey 23: A horne-mad Cuckold, is a wild Bull, bellowing and roaring still after his Cow.
1654		E. Gayton Pleasant Notes III xi 145: Angelica made him horne mad.
a.1661		‘Rebellion’ in Rump Poems and Songs (1662) 293: The Country has grown sad, / The City is horn-mad.
1680		M. Stevenson Wits Paraphras’d 69: Horn-mad I cou’d not please them all. / But there was one, my Mouth did water.
1693		Congreve Old Bachelor IV vi: I sprout! I bud! I blossom! I am ripe-horn-mad!
1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 215: I [...] was grown of a sudden so Horn-mad withal.
1815		D. Humphreys Yankey in England 55: The man is raging; mad! mad as a March-hare—horn mad, sure as rates.
1951		R. Campbell Light on a Dark Horse 252: Queer folk like Sennacheribs, the rhinoceros who was horn-mad.