2006-07-25 14:09:47 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
The word comes from that idea, yes. In short: lunatic comes from the Old French "lunatique" meaning "insane," itself from the Latin "lunaticus" meaning "moon-struck". This of course comes from the Latin "luna", the source of our "lunar".
2006-07-25 14:31:13 · answer #1 · answered by Charles G 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
But to answer the question you implied, rather than just frustrating you as the previous fellow did with his (very erudite and perfectly useless) answer; no, the Moon has nothing measurable to do with sanity or insanity. On a practical basis, criminals and the insane will sometimes wait until the night of the full moon in order to have light by which to do their thing. So they are more frequently caught at those times and it seems as if there was a causal connection, which there probably is not.
2006-07-25 21:41:48 · answer #2 · answered by cdf-rom 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. Lunatics have nothing to do with the phases of moon.
2006-07-25 21:47:16 · answer #3 · answered by bhattaramSK 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The name does come from the moon. People who work in places that handle alot of people(schools, hospitals) have noticed an effect of the phases of the moon.
2006-07-25 22:25:35 · answer #4 · answered by science teacher 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋