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Lunatics

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Moon-struck persons. The Romans believed that the mind was affected by the moon, and that “lunatics” were more and more frenzied as the moon increased to its full. (See Avertin.)

“The various mental derangements … which have been attributed to the influence of the moon, have given to this day the name lunatics to persons suffering from serious mental disorders.”—Crozier: Popular Errors, chap. iv. p. 53.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Luke’s Iron Crown
Lullian Method
Lumber (from Lombard)
Lumine Sicco (In)
Lump
Lumpkin (Tony)
Lun
Luna
Lunar Month
Lunar Year
Lunatics
Luncheon. (Welsh, llonc or llwnc, a gulp; llyncu, to swallow at a gulp.)
Lungs of London
Lunsford
Lupercal (The)
Lupine
Lupus et Agnus
Lupus in Fabula
Lurch
Lush
Lusiad or The Lusiads