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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
To: "Daniel J. Milton" <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2005 1:30 PM
Subject: Re: The word "loon" (was: Re: [tied] Re: Also an Austro-Asiatic
Disconnect)


> At 1:49:37 PM on Thursday, November 10, 2005, Daniel J.
> Milton wrote:
>
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
> > <BMScott@...> wrote:
>
> >> 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'.)
>
> > No.
>
> Yes.
>
> > <Loon> 'a crazy person; a simpleton'(ME <louen, etc.)is,
> > according to the OED, of uncertain origin.
>
> I have no idea where you're getting this, since my own
> information is from the on-line OED, this article being from
> the 1989 edition. Specifically, s.v. <loon> n.-2,
> definition 1.c.:
>
> c. transf. A crazy person; a simpleton.
> Perhaps influenced by LOONY a. and n.
>
> This is the bird noun ('A name for certain acquatic birds').
> The etymology is given as follows:
>
> App. an alteration of LOOM n.2 q.v., perh. by assimilation
> to prec. n.
>
> The preceding noun is:
>
> 1. A worthless person; a rogue, scamp (esp. in false loon,
> to play the loon); a sluggard, idler.
>
> b. Of a woman: A strumpet, concubine.
>
> 2. A man of low birth or condition; in phrase lord and
> loon. Now only arch.
>
> 3. A boor, lout, clown; an untaught, ill-bred person.
>
> 4. A fellow, man, 'chap'.
>
> 5. A boy, lad, youth.
>
> The etymology is uncertain:
>
> In 16th c. lowen, lowne, rhyming with chenoun, downe. Of
> obscure origin; the early forms do not favour the current
> hypothesis of connexion with early mod.Du. loen 'homo
> stupidus' (Plantijn and Kilian) which seems to be known
> only from dictionaries. The ON. lúenn, beaten, benumbed,
> weary, exhausted (pa. ppl. of lýja to beat, thrash) has
> been suggested as a possible etymon. The order of
> development of the senses is somewhat uncertain.]
>
> The LOOM in question is 'A name given in northern seas to
> species of the Guillemot and the Diver, esp. Alca bruennichi
> and Colymbus septentrionalis (Red-throated Diver). Cf. LOON
> n.2', also 'The flesh of these birds as an article of food'.
> The etymology: 'In Shetland repr. a. ON. lóm-r; in mod.
> literary use partly from Shetland dialect and partly a.
> mod.Sw. and Da. lom.'
>
> > <Loony> 'a crazy person' is a contraction of lunatic, one
> > moon-struck.
>
> Which is precisely what I said.
>
> Brian

***
Patrick:

Ignorance can be corrected; moronity cannot.

If /luni/, 'crazy person', were an abbreviation (not contraction!) of
<lunatic>, it would be spelled *<luney>.

***