a. [ad. late L. lūnātic-us, f. L. lūna moon: see -ATIC. Cf. F. lunatique, Sp., It. lunatico.] A. adj.
1. Originally, affected with the kind of insanity that was supposed to have recurring periods dependent on the changes of the moon. In mod. use, synonymous with INSANE; current in popular and legal language, but not now employed technically by physicians.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 369/99. He hadde ane douȝter þat was lunatyke.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. X. 107. Þe whiche aren lunatik lollers and leperes a-boute, And mad as þe mone sitt.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. xcv. (1495), 587. The precyous stone Topazius … helpith ayenst the passyon Lunatyk.
1430–40. Lydg., Bochas, VII. ii. (1554), 165 b. He was … euery moneth once Lunaticke.
1564. in Strype, Eccl. Mem., III. App. lviii. 197. All this trouble … was when you were lunatike and not your owne man.
1592. Kyd, Sp. Trag., III. viii. 5 (Stage Direction), She runnes lunaticke.
1600. Hosp. Incur. Fooles, 77. If the moone be euill placed, either it maketh men extatical, lunatick, or subiect to the kings euill.
1604. S. Grahame, Pass. Sparke, E 4 b. The greatest Foole is wise if he be rich, And wisedome flowes from his Lunatique brayne.
1640. Yorke, Union Hon., 110. This Alice fell lunaticke, and was divorced from the said Gilbert.
1759. Robertson, Hist. Scot., VII. Wks. 1813, I. 548. The presumptive heir to the throne was lunatic.
1885. Sat. Rev., 18 July, 80/1. One of the most distinctive marks of the lunatic mind is that it reasons sanely from insane premises.
1889. Spectator, 21 Dec. The House of Castile, which, after fighting and reigning for nearly eight hundred years, terminated in a lunatic girl.
b. Of things: Indicating lunacy; crazy.
1605. Shaks., Lear, II. iii. 13. Bedlam beggers, who with roaring voices … Sometime with Lunaticke bans, sometime with Praiers, Inforce their charitie.
1614. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, I. i. A notable hypocriticall vermine it is … of a most lunatique conscience, and splene.
1861. Bushnell, Char. Jesus, 48. There have been great enthusiasts in the world, and they have shown their infirmity by lunatic airs, appropriate to their extravagance.
c. fig. Madly foolish, frantic, idiotic, ‘mad.’
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. iv. 5. If lunatik rashnesse have caryed any into sinne.
1590. Marlowe, Edw. II., V. i. 113. Greefe makes me lunaticke.
1604. Dekker, Honest Wh., Wks. 1873, II. 71. I am sicke Of that disease, all Love is lunatike.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., To Rdr. A. Nothing [is] esteem’d in this lunatique age but what is kept in cabinets.
1859. Bright, Sp. India, 1 Aug. (1876), 47. No policy can be more lunatic than the policy of annexation.
1884. Geo. Eliot, Ess. (ed. 2), 14. The seventh [Satire] … contains nothing in particular except lunatic flattery of George I.
† 2. a. Influenced by the moon. Obs.
c. 1430. Lydg., Reas. & Sens., 6177. Ther [sc. women’s] hertys chaunge never … Ther sect ys no thing lunatyke.
1583. Greene, Mamillia, Wks. (Grosart), II. 180. By nativitie they be lunaticke, not taking this worde as the English men do, for starke mad, but as borne under the influence of Luna, and therefore as firme … as melting waxe.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., 14. I that was borne to suppresse & treade down sinne vnder foote, in the night time, (when that sinne-inhabited element is wont to be most lunaticke) walke on the crests of the surges as on the dry land.
† b. Farriery. Affected with moonblindness; moon-blind, moon-eyed. Obs.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 124. Ye broken wineded, the lunatike, and the mangines, called the Farcine.
1580. Blundevil, Curing Horses Dis., 16. Of lunatike eies.
1607. Markham, Caval., VII. (1617), 22. Lunatike eyes, or Moone eyes.
1737. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1756), I. 136. In Lunatick or Moon-blind Horses.
B. sb. A lunatic person; a person of unsound mind; a madman.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. Prol. 123. Thanne loked vp a lunatik, a lene thing with-alle.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. II. 23. Lunatikes ben sich men þat han cours of þer siikenesse bi movyng of þe moone.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., V. i. 8. The Lunaticke, the Louer, and the Poet, Are of imagination all compact.
1628. Coke, On Litt., I. 247 a. A Lunatique that hath sometime his vnderstanding and sometime not.
1735. Morte in Swift’s Lett. (1768), IV. 107. An Hospital for Lunaticks and Idiots.
1742. Act 15 Geo. II., c. 30. Whereas Persons who have the Misfortune to become Lunaticks, may … be liable to be surprised into unsuitable Marriages.
1757. Smollett, Reprisal, I. viii. An English lunatic at full moon, is a very sober animal when compared to a Frenchman in a passion.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), I. 315. An infant, a person of nonsane memory, an idiot, a lunatic,… may also be grantees of a copyhold.
1828. Sir A. Halliday, Pres. St. Lunatics, 30. In Perthshire, the idiots are two hundred and eight, the lunatics only one hundred and fifty-nine.
1881. Encycl. Brit., XIII. 113/1. Insane persons (although not lunatics so found by inquisition) may be placed under personal restraint.
1887. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 9 April, 808/2. A desperate encounter recently took place … between a lunatic who had escaped from Hatton Asylum and two keepers who were sent in pursuit.
b. fig. A madly foolish person.
1602. 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass., II. iii. 665. She may be thy Luna, and thou her Lunaticke.
a. 1631. Donne, Poems (1650), 4. Vaine lunatique, against these scapes I could Dispute, and conquer, if I would.
1884. Chr. World, 4 Sept., 667/1. Any man telling the farmers of Ireland not to pay their rents would be a lunatic.
c. attrib.: lunatic asylum (also lunatic hospital, † house), a hospital established for the reception and treatment of lunatics.
1762. Wesley, Jrnl., 21 Dec. (1827), III. 120. I doubt this is not the case of any other lunatic hospital.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), III. 63. The proportion of patients returned as having been received into lunatic houses.
1828. Sir A. Halliday (title), A General View of the Present State of Lunatics, and Lunatic Asylums, in Great Britain and Ireland. Ibid., 31. Dumfries has a small lunatic establishment, attached to the County Infirmary.
1885. Times, 4 Aug., 9/4. It was elicited that a page from the lunatic entry book had been surreptitiously removed.
1887. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 2 April, 736/1. That the registered lunatic hospitals should not be subjected to special restrictions and disabilities.
