loony

Etymology

It is formed from English lunatic + -y, by shortening the first word,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} with the spelling changed under the influence of loon, a worthless or foolish person, and perhaps of the bird of that name, noted for its wild cry.^{[7][2][8][9][10]} That word is from Old French lunatique or Late Latin lūnāticus (“moonstruck”), from lūna (“moon”).^[7] Green's Dictionary of Slang allows that the noun may come from loon instead.^[11] The OED compares the colloquial names “Luny House” and “Looney House”, recorded in 1842 and 1846, for Luna House, a prison on Blackwell's Island in New York.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person with a serious mental illness, or one regarded as wildly foolish or eccentric: 1851, in a Comic Natural History.^[2] Etymonline dates the adjective to 1853 in American English and the noun to 1884,^[7] and Barnhart dates the adjective to 1872, in Bret Harte's An Heiress of Red Dog.^[8][12]

Semantic evolution

The word was spelled loony, looney, loonie and luny, the last now rare.^[7][3][11] The adjective, recorded from 1865 on both sides of the Atlantic,^[2][11] was then probably associated with the ordinary adjective suffix -y.^[2] Green's quotations show the noun for inmates of asylums in 1873 and 1892,^[11] and the slang loony bin, a mental hospital, is recorded by 1909;^[7] Barnhart credits P. G. Wodehouse's My Man Jeeves (1919) with the humorous phrase.^[8] Loony alone was used for such a hospital from 1937.^[2] In politics the adjective has been applied since 1961 to an extreme or fanatical faction, as in loony left,^[2][3] which Etymonline dates to 1977.^[7] Warner Bros. named its cartoon series Looney Tunes in 1930,^[7] and loony tunes later became a chiefly American word for crazy people.^[3]

Timeline

• 1851 – noun, a mentally ill, or wildly foolish or eccentric, person.^[2]
• 1853 – adjective, crazy, silly and eccentric, in American English.^[7] The OED and Green's Dictionary of Slang first record the adjective in 1865,^[2][11] Barnhart in 1872.^[8]
• 1909 – loony bin, a mental hospital.^[7]
• 1937 – noun, a mental hospital.^[2]
• 1961 – adjective, of an extreme political faction, as in loony left.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (informal, offensive) Mentally ill; crazy.^[13][4][2]
2. (informal) Very foolish, eccentric or ridiculous: a loony plan to sail the Atlantic in a bathtub.^[13][4][2]
3. (politics, derogatory) Holding extreme or fanatical views: a loony fringe group.^[2][3]

Noun

1. (informal) A foolish or eccentric person.^[13][2]
2. (informal, offensive) A person with a mental illness; a lunatic.^[13][4][2]

Word family

• loonily
• looniness
• loony bin
• loony tunes

Related words

• lunacy
• lunatic
• loon
• lunar
• loonie

Usage notes

Collins labels the senses relating to mental illness offensive,^[13] and the OED marks the word as disparaging or derogatory.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins