The word "loon" (was: Re: [tied] Re: Also an Austro-Asiatic Disconn

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:

>
> At 1:53:47 AM on Thursday, November 10, 2005, Patrick Ryan
> wrote:
>
> > From: "glen gordon" <glengordon01@...>
>
> >> Patrick:
>
> >>> It is 'loon' rather than your ignorantly misspelled
> >>> "lune".
>
> >> Actually, the basis of the word "loon" is "lunatic"
> >> which is naturally related to the French word "lune",
> >> the implication being that crazy people are driven
> >> to madness by way of the moon.
>
> > 'Loon' is derived from 'loon', a bird with a call that
> > sounds like a crazy laugh.
>
> Although <loon> 'a crazy person; a simpleton' is from the
> bird appellative, it's also quite likely that the sense
> development was influenced by <loony> 'lunatic' (noun and
> adj.), which is from <lunatic> and hence related to French
> <lune>. (And I'm amused to discover that there's an archaic
> English <lune>, used only in the plural to mean 'fits of
> frenzy or lunacy; mad freaks or tantrums'.)
>
> Brian

*********
No.
<Loon> 'a crazy person; a simpleton'(ME <louen, etc.)is, according to
the OED, of uncertain origin. <Loon> the bird, orig. <loom> may have
received it's "n" by association therewith. <Loony> 'a crazy person'
is a contraction of lunatic, one moon-struck.
Dan