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American Heritage Dictionary:
lu·na·tic |
[Middle English lunatik, from Old French lunatique, from Latin lūnāticus, from lūna, moon.]
lunatic lu'na·tic n.|
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Roget's Thesaurus:
lunatic |
adjective
noun
Antonyms by Answers.com:
lunatic |
Definition: crazy, mad
Antonyms: healthy, sane, sensible
n
Definition: madperson
Antonyms: sane person
Random House Word Menu:
categories related to 'lunatic' |
Rhymes:
lunatic |
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Lunatic |
"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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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.
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
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]
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Look up lunatic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
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Translations:
Lunatic |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - vanvittig, sindssyg, gal
adj. - vanvittig, sindssyg, gal
idioms:
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:
Deutsch (German)
n. - Wahnsinniger, Irrer
adj. - wahnsinnig
idioms:
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - φρενοβλαβής, παράφρων, τρελός
adj. - παράφρονας, τρελός
idioms:
idioms:
Português (Portuguese)
n., -
adj. - lunático (m), louco (m)
idioms:
Русский (Russian)
душевнобольной, безумец
idioms:
Español (Spanish)
n. - lunático, demente, loco
adj. - lunático, demente, loco, descabellado, de locos
idioms:
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:
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:
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:
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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Copyrights:
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 | American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Roget's Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Antonyms by Answers.com. © 1999-present by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Random House Word Menu. © 2010 Write Brothers Inc. Word Menu is a registered trademark of the Estate of Stephen Glazier. Write Brothers Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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Rhymes. Oxford University Press. © 2006, 2007 All rights reserved. Read more | |
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| Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary. Collins Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary © Anne Bradford, 1986, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008 HarperCollins Publishers All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia on Answers.com. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Lunatic. Read more |
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| Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
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