#62 - Origin of the Word Lunatic

Today during our weekly knitting time, I was talking about being amazed how much the moon affects people.  When I was working in the nursing home as a nurse aide, I never kept track of the moon cycles but some evenings when I walked into work, I immediately knew it was a full moon. The patients were very different on those evenings. I remember one evening/night I had a patient who kept telling me something was in her room, another one kept saying someone was pinching her (she was alone in her room), and several yelling and carrying on. As all the nurses and nurse aides scurried around the nursing home trying to calm everyone done, someone said "it happens every time there's a full moon".

Lunatic Pillow by elementees on Etsy, $15.95

The science nerd in me loves the use of the
periodic table elements to spell things! :)

Today I was talking about this chaos during a full moon when a friend said and that's where the word "lunatic" comes from. I'd never really thought about it but once she said it, I knew it must be true. "Luna" is the latin root for "moon". Of course, "lunatic" would have originated from the craziness that a full moon brings on.

Full Moon Behind a Tree Painting by WindingRoadGallery on Etsy, $25

In the 13th century, lunatic meant "affected with periodic insanity, dependent on changes of the moon".

In the old days, people believed you'd go mad if the moon shone on your while you were sleeping. So some people had roofs that came down over the windows of their house.

Other uses/phrases with the word lunatic:

In 1933, "lunatic soup" was Australian slang for "alcoholic drink". For some reason this really made me giggle.

Today the phrase "lunatic fringe" is used to describe extremists and irrational members of a group or society.