Squisher
Lifer
Lunatic
A lunatic (colloquially: "loony") is commonly used term for a person who is mentally ill, dangerous, foolish or unpredictable, a condition once called lunacy.
The word is borrowed via French from Latin "lunaticus", which gains its stem from "luna" for moon, which denotes the traditional link made in folklore between madness and the phases of the moon. This probably refers to the symptoms of cyclic mood disorders such as bipolar disorder or cyclothymia, the symptoms of which may also go through phases. As yet there is little evidence for any causal link between phases of the moon and the progression of mood disorder symptoms.
In a 1999 paper, Raison et al. put forward the interesting hypothesis that the phase of the moon may in the past have had an effect on bipolar patients by providing light during nights which would otherwise have been dark, and affecting susceptible patients through the well-known route of sleep deprivation. 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. They suggest ways in which this hypothesis might be tested.
Mental institutions used to be called "lunatic asylums" or colloquially, "loony bins" (the latter term is still occasionally used both humorously and insensitively).
In Russian, a lunatic refers to a sleepwalker, literally "one who walks under the moon" or "moonwalker".
People can be offended by the terms 'loony' and 'lunatic', and euphemistic neologisms are often used instead. But it can also connote flamboyance and joviality, as in the popular image of Screaming Lord Sutch of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, who was bipolar.
A lunatic (colloquially: "loony") is commonly used term for a person who is mentally ill, dangerous, foolish or unpredictable, a condition once called lunacy.
The word is borrowed via French from Latin "lunaticus", which gains its stem from "luna" for moon, which denotes the traditional link made in folklore between madness and the phases of the moon. This probably refers to the symptoms of cyclic mood disorders such as bipolar disorder or cyclothymia, the symptoms of which may also go through phases. As yet there is little evidence for any causal link between phases of the moon and the progression of mood disorder symptoms.
In a 1999 paper, Raison et al. put forward the interesting hypothesis that the phase of the moon may in the past have had an effect on bipolar patients by providing light during nights which would otherwise have been dark, and affecting susceptible patients through the well-known route of sleep deprivation. 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. They suggest ways in which this hypothesis might be tested.
Mental institutions used to be called "lunatic asylums" or colloquially, "loony bins" (the latter term is still occasionally used both humorously and insensitively).
In Russian, a lunatic refers to a sleepwalker, literally "one who walks under the moon" or "moonwalker".
People can be offended by the terms 'loony' and 'lunatic', and euphemistic neologisms are often used instead. But it can also connote flamboyance and joviality, as in the popular image of Screaming Lord Sutch of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, who was bipolar.
