Crazy, silly, or acting in an unpredictable and irrational way.
Short for 'lunatic,' which comes from Latin 'lunatics' (moonstruck), from 'luna' meaning moon. People once believed the moon's phases affected people's mental stability and sanity.
People genuinely thought the moon made you crazy—so much so that 'lunatic' and 'loony' literally mean 'moon-touched,' and we still have 'lunacy' in our legal system. Hospitals were called 'lunatic asylums' well into the 1900s, all based on an ancient superstition about gravity and madness.
Originally from 'lunatic,' rooted in lunar theories that historically pathologized women's reproduction and menstruation, treating hormonal cycles as markers of inherent instability.
Avoid when possible; prefer 'unreasonable,' 'irrational,' or 'ill-conceived' to avoid ableist connotations and gendered mental health stigma.
["irrational","unreasonable","unfounded","absurd"]
Women's scientific contributions to endocrinology (e.g., hormone research by Gerty Cori, Rosalind Franklin's structural biology) disproved the lunar-menstrual pathology myth.
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