| 释义 |
lunatic, a.|ˈl(j)uːnətɪk|
[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.
c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 369/99 He hadde ane douȝter þat was lunatyke. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. x. 107 Þe whiche aren lunatik lollers and leperes a-boute, And mad as þe mone sitt. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. xcv. (1495) 587 The precyous stone Topazius..helpith ayenst the passyon Lunatyk. 1430–40Lydg. Bochas vii. ii. (1554) 165 b, He was..euery moneth once Lunaticke. 1564in Strype Eccl. Mem. III. App. lviii. 197 All this trouble..was when you were lunatike and not your owne man. 1592Kyd Sp. Trag. iii. viii. 5 (Stage Direction), She runnes lunaticke. 1600Hosp. Incur. Fooles 77 If the moone be euill placed, either it maketh men extatical, lunatick, or subiect to the kings euill. 1604S. Grahame Pass. Sparke E 4 b, The greatest Foole is wise if he be rich, And wisedome flowes from his Lunatique brayne. 1640Yorke Union Hon. 110 This Alice fell lunaticke, and was divorced from the said Gilbert. 1759Robertson Hist. Scot. vii. Wks. 1813 I. 548 The presumptive heir to the throne was lunatic. 1885Sat. Rev. 18 July 80/1 One of the most distinctive marks of the lunatic mind is that it reasons sanely from insane premises. 1889Spectator 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.
1605Shakes. Lear ii. iii. 13 Bedlam beggers, who with roaring voices..Sometime with Lunaticke bans, sometime with Praiers, Inforce their charitie. 1614B. Jonson Barth. Fair i. i, A notable hypocriticall vermine it is..of a most lunatique conscience, and splene. 1861Bushnell 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’.
1571Golding Calvin on Ps. iv. 5 If lunatik rashnesse have caryed any into sinne. 1590Marlowe Edw. II, v. i. 113 Greefe makes me lunaticke. 1604Dekker Honest Wh. Wks. 1873 II. 71, I am sicke Of that disease, all Love is lunatike. 1612Drayton Poly-olb. To Rdr. A, Nothing [is] esteem'd in this lunatique age but what is kept in cabinets. 1859Bright Sp. India 1 Aug. (1876) 47 No policy can be more lunatic than the policy of annexation. 1884Geo. 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.
c1430Lydg. Reas. & Sens. 6177 Ther [sc. women's] hertys chaunge never..Ther sect ys no thing lunatyke. 1583Greene 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. 1593Nashe 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.
1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 124 Y⊇ broken wineded, the lunatike, and the mangines, called the Farcine. 1580Blundevil Curing Horses Dis. 16 Of lunatike eies. 1607Markham Caval. vii. (1617) 22 Lunatike eyes, or Moone eyes. 1737Bracken Farriery Impr. (1756) I. 136 In Lunatick or Moon-blind Horses.
B. n. A lunatic person; a person of unsound mind; a madman.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. Prol. 123 Thanne loked vp a lunatik, a lene thing with-alle. c1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 23 Lunatikes ben sich men þat han cours of þer siikenesse bi movyng of þe moone. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. v. i. 8 The Lunaticke, the Louer, and the Poet, Are of imagination all compact. 1628Coke On Litt. i. 247 a, A Lunatique that hath sometime his vnderstanding and sometime not. 1735Motte in Swift's Lett. (1768) IV. 107 An Hospital for Lunaticks and Idiots. 1742Act 15 Geo. II, c. 30 Whereas Persons who have the Misfortune to become Lunaticks, may..be liable to be surprised into unsuitable Marriages. 1757Smollett Reprisal i. viii, An English lunatic at full moon, is a very sober animal when compared to a Frenchman in a passion. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) I. 315 An infant, a person of nonsane memory, an idiot, a lunatic,..may also be grantees of a copyhold. 1828Sir A. Halliday Pres. St. Lunatics 30 In Perthshire, the idiots are two hundred and eight, the lunatics only one hundred and fifty-nine. 1881Encycl. Brit. XIII. 113/1 Insane persons (although not lunatics so found by inquisition) may be placed under personal restraint. 1887Brit. Med. Jrnl. 9 Apr. 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.
16022nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. ii. iii. 665 She may be thy Luna, and thou her Lunaticke. a1631Donne Poems (1650) 4 Vaine lunatique, against these scapes I could Dispute, and conquer, if I would. 1884Chr. 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; lunatic fringe, a minority group of adherents to a political or other movement or set of beliefs; also attrib.; lunatic soup Austral. and N.Z. slang, alcoholic drink.
1762Wesley Jrnl. 21 Dec. (1827) III. 120, I doubt this is not the case of any other lunatic hospital. 1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) III. 63 The proportion of patients returned as having been received into lunatic houses. 1828Sir 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. 1885Times 4 Aug. 9/4 A page from the lunatic entry book had been surreptitiously removed. 1887Brit. Med. Jrnl. 2 Apr. 736/1 That the registered lunatic hospitals should not be subjected to special restrictions and disabilities. 1913T. Roosevelt Hist. as Lit. 305 There is apt to be a lunatic fringe among the votaries of any forward movement. 1933Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Sept. 42/1 Lunatic soup, as the few fellows about who knew him as Darkie called the brandy he drank. 1936Economist 4 Jan. 3/1 Dr. Townsend has now left all his rivals behind in competition for the votes of the lunatic fringe. 1941Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 45 Lunatic soup, cheap red wine. 1945‘G. Orwell’ England your England (1953) 56 The lunatic fringe even contrived to be simultaneously pro-Russian and pro-Nazi. 1951E. Paul Springtime in Paris iii. 59 Most of the paintings are imitations of other paintings, either conscious or unconscious, ranging from primitives and false primitives to the latest lunatic fringe. 1953Manch. Guardian Weekly 21 May 15/4 Five [letters]..refer to his ‘plug-ugly tactics’, the ‘lunatic fringe’ brand of anti-communism. 1958Times 9 Sept. 9/3 The lunatic fringe of society, to which only too many irresponsible hoaxers here and in America belong, finds the telephone its best friend. 1968Guardian 12 Dec. 9/1 Lunatic-fringe Utopians call for something entirely new. 1969Observer 23 Nov. 25/3 Views like these, as anyone who has listened to a few conversations on the verandahs of suburban Kingston will recognise, aren't lunatic fringe. 1970Ibid. 11 Oct. 32/3 Both sides..have what you might call lunatic fringes; on the middle-aged right there are those who would lynch anyone with long hair, on the young left..there are those who refuse to state their case rationally. 1973D. Ramsay Deadly Discretion 175 Antique shops were magnets for the lunatic fringe. |