lunatic
American Heritage Dictionary:
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lu·na·tic
(lū'nə-tĭk) 
adj.
adj.
- Suffering from lunacy; insane.
- Of or for the insane.
- Wildly or giddily foolish: a lunatic decision.
- Characterized by lunacy or eccentricity.
[Middle English lunatik, from Old French lunatique, from Latin lūnāticus, from lūna, moon.]
lunatic lu'na·tic n.Roget's Thesaurus:
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lunatic
adjective
- Afflicted with or exhibiting irrationality and mental unsoundness: brainsick, crazy, daft, demented, disordered, distraught, dotty, insane, mad, maniac, maniacal, mentally ill, moonstruck, off, touched, unbalanced, unsound, wrong. Informal bonkers, cracked, daffy, gaga, loony. Slang bananas, batty, buggy, cuckoo, fruity, loco, nuts, nutty, screwy, wacky. Chiefly British crackers. Law non compos mentis. Idioms: around the bend, crazy as a loon, mad as a hatter, not all there, nutty as a fruitcake, offout ofone's head, off one's rocker, of unsound mind, out of one's mind, sick in the head, stark raving mad. See sane/insane.
- So senseless as to be laughable: absurd, foolish, harebrained, idiotic, imbecilic, insane, mad, moronic, nonsensical, preposterous, silly, softheaded, tomfool, unearthly, zany. Informal cockeyed, crazy, loony, loopy. Slang balmy2, dippy, dopey, jerky, sappy, wacky. See ability/inability, knowledge/ignorance.
noun
- A person regarded as strange, eccentric, or crazy: crackpot, crazy, eccentric. Informal crank, loon, loony. Slang cuckoo, ding-a-ling, dingbat, kook, nut, screwball, weirdie, weirdo. See wise/foolish.
Antonyms by Answers.com:
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lunatic
adj
Definition: crazy, mad
Antonyms: healthy, sane, sensible
n
Definition: madperson
Antonyms: sane person
Random House Word Menu:
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categories related to 'lunatic'
- Behavior or Personality
- Excessive, Mad, Insane, or Radical
- Insanity - lunatic: insane person
See crossword solutions for the clue Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Lunatic
For other uses, see Lunatic (disambiguation).
- "Loony" redirects here. For the Canadian 1 dollar coin (loonie), see Canadian 1 dollar coin. Or see Looney (disambiguation) or Luni (disambiguation).
"Lunatic" is an informal term referring to people who are considered mentally ill, dangerous, foolish or unpredictable; conditions once called lunacy. The term may be considered insulting in serious contexts, though is sometimes used in friendly jest. The word derives from lunaticus meaning "of the moon" or "moonstruck".
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Contents
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Lunar hypothesis
Philosophers such as Aristotle and Pliny the Elder argued that the full Moon induced insanity in susceptible individuals, believing that the brain, which is mostly water, must be affected by the Moon and its power over the tides, but the Moon's gravity is too slight to affect any single person.[1] Even today, people insist that admissions to psychiatric hospitals, traffic accidents, homicides or suicides increase during a full Moon, although there is no scientific evidence to support such claims.[1]
In a 1999 Journal of Affective Disorders article, a hypothesis was suggested that the phase of the moon may in the past have had an effect on individuals with bipolar disorder by providing light during nights which would otherwise have been dark, and affecting susceptible individuals through the well-known route of sleep deprivation.[2] With the introduction of electric light, this effect would have gone away, as light would be available every night, explaining the negative results of modern studies. The authors suggested ways in which this hypothesis might be tested.
Use of the term "lunatic" in legislation
In England and Wales the Lunacy Acts 1890 - 1922 referred to lunatics, but the Mental Treatment Act 1930 changed the legal term to "Person of Unsound Mind", an expression which was replaced under the Mental Health Act 1959 by mental illness. "Person of unsound mind" was the term used in 1950 in the English version of the European Convention on Human Rights as one of the types of person who could be deprived of liberty by a judicial process. The 1930 act also replaced Asylum with Mental Hospital. Criminal Lunatics became Broadmoor Patients in 1948 under the National Health Service Act
Lunar distance
The term lunatic was also used by supporters of John Harrison and his marine chronometer method of determining longitude to refer to proponents of the Method of Lunar Distances, advanced by Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne.[citation needed]
Later, members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham called themselves lunaticks. In an age with little street lighting, the society met on or about the night of the full moon.[citation needed]
See also
References
- ^ a b Lilienfeld, Scott O.; Arkowitz, Hal (2009). "Lunacy and the Full Moon". Scientific American. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=lunacy-and-the-full-moon. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
- ^ The Moon and madness reconsidered Journal of Affective Disorders, June, 1999
- Riva, M. A.; Tremolizzo, L.; Spicci, M.; Ferrarese, C.; De Vito, G.; Cesana, G. C.; Sironi, V. A. (January 2011). "The Disease of the Moon: The Linguistic and Pathological Evolution of the English Term "Lunatic"". Journal of the History of the Neurosciences 20 (1): 65–73. doi:10.1080/0964704X.2010.481101.
External links
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Look up lunatic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Does the full moon have any effects on mood? (cites research studies: 2 negative, 1 positive)
- Raison CL, Klein HM, Steckler M. The moon and madness reconsidered. J Affect Disord. 1999 April; 53(1):99-106
- Crackdown on lunar-fuelled crime - BBC News, 5 June 2007
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Translations:
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Lunatic
Dansk (Danish)
n. - vanvittig, sindssyg, gal
adj. - vanvittig, sindssyg, gal
idioms:
- lunatic asylum sindssygeanstalt, galeanstalt, galehus
- lunatic fringe yderliggående fanatikere
Nederlands (Dutch)
gek, waanzinnig
Français (French)
n. - (Méd) dément (arch), aliéné, (Jur) dément (arch), (fig) fou/folle
adj. - (Méd, Jur) dément (arch), (fig) fou/folle
idioms:
- lunatic asylum asile d'aliénés
- lunatic fringe les extrémistes
Deutsch (German)
n. - Wahnsinniger, Irrer
adj. - wahnsinnig
idioms:
- lunatic asylum Irrenanstalt
- lunatic fringe extreme Minderheitsgruppe
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - φρενοβλαβής, παράφρων, τρελός
adj. - παράφρονας, τρελός
idioms:
- lunatic asylum φρενοκομείο, άσυλο φρενοβλαβών
- lunatic fringe δράκα εξτρεμιστών
idioms:
- lunatic asylum manicomio
- lunatic fringe frangia estremista
Português (Portuguese)
n., -
adj. - lunático (m), louco (m)
idioms:
- lunatic asylum asilo (m) de loucos
- lunatic fringe pessoa (f) ou grupo (m) de extremistas fanáticos
Русский (Russian)
душевнобольной, безумец
idioms:
- lunatic asylum психиатрическая больница
- lunatic fringe фанатичные приверженцы
Español (Spanish)
n. - lunático, demente, loco
adj. - lunático, demente, loco, descabellado, de locos
idioms:
- lunatic asylum manicomio
- lunatic fringe extremistas, fanáticos
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - galning, dåre, (föråld.) sinnessjuk (person)
adj. - vansinnig, dåraktig, vild, otyglad
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
疯人, 愚蠢的人, 癫狂者, 疯癫的, 丧心病狂的, 愚蠢的
idioms:
- lunatic asylum 疯人院, 精神病院
- lunatic fringe 狂热者, 极端主义者
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 瘋人, 愚蠢的人, 癲狂者
adj. - 瘋癲的, 喪心病狂的, 愚蠢的
idioms:
- lunatic asylum 瘋人院, 精神病院
- lunatic fringe 狂熱者, 極端主義者
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 미치광이 , 정신 이상자, 괴짜
adj. - 미친 , 정신이상의, 미치광이를 위한
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 狂人, 精神異常者, 心神喪失者
adj. - 精神異常の, 気違いじみた
idioms:
- lunatic asylum 精神病院
- lunatic fringe 少数過激派
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) المجنون, المجذوب, الطائش (صفه) مجنون, مجذوب, طائش, معد للعنايه بالمحاذيب
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - מטורף, אדם מוזר, טיפש
adj. - מטורף, מוזר, טיפש
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