Michael asks
What is the origin of loony?
If you mean, origin of "loony" as a word, it turns out you have multiple possibilities. First, coincidentally enough, it might come from "moon." As in "loony bin," derivative of "lunatic," someone suffering from "lunacy," originally a form of insanity associated with the appearance of the moon. There are accounts of outbreaks of "lunatic" behavior associated with the appearance of the full moon in medieval Europe. That's the most likely source, I'd guess. But second, "loony" as in "crazy as a loon," having to do with the weird laughingish call of that bird. And third, you've got the separate word "loon," meaning an idle, worthless or crazy person, derived from an old Scandinavian word for "stupid man." Looks like we have a genuine case of Althusserian overdetermination here... Gil
On Tue, Jun 13, 2006 at 10:23:06AM -0700, Jim Devine wrote: > how about the other flights to the moon. Were they faked too? > > I know, I know, no-one on pen-l believes that the flight to the moon > was faked. Or do they? > >
