lunacy

English

WOTD – 1 June 2008

Etymology

From lun(atic) + -acy.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈluː.nə.si/, /ˈljuː.nə.si/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈluː.nə.si/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (Australia):

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Noun

lunacy (countable and uncountable, plural lunacies)

1. (of a person or group of people) The state of being mad, insanity
   1. A cyclical mental disease, apparently linked to the lunar phases.
   2. Insanity implying legal irresponsibility.
2. Something deeply misguided.
   • 1867, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, chapter VI, in The Gambler, translated by C. J. Hogarth‎^[1]:

     Two days have passed since that day of lunacy. What a noise and a fuss and a chattering and an uproar there was! And what a welter of unseemliness and disorder and stupidity and bad manners! And I the cause of it all! Yet part of the scene was also ridiculous—at all events to myself it was so.

Synonyms

• (state of being mad): insanity, madness, craziness, craze

Derived terms

• balloonacy
• commission of lunacy

Translations

state of being mad

• Bulgarian: лудост (bg) f (ludost)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 精神病 (zh) (jīngshénbìng), 神經病 / 神经病 (zh) (shénjīngbìng)

• Danish: galskab c
• Dutch: gekheid (nl), krankzinnigheid (nl), waanzin (nl)
• Finnish: hulluus (fi)
• French: folie (fr) f
• German: Verrücktheit (de) f, Wahnsinn (de) m
• Irish: gealtachas m
• Italian: pazzia (it) f
• Manx: ard-ommidjys m
• Marathi: वेड n (veḍ)
• Norwegian: galskap (no) m
• Old English: mōnaþsēocnes f
• Plautdietsch: Wonsenn m
• Polish: obłęd (pl) m, niepoczytalność (pl) f
• Russian: безу́мие (ru) n (bezúmije), невменя́емость (ru) f (nevmenjájemostʹ), помеша́тельство (ru) n (pomešátelʹstvo), сумасше́ствие (ru) n (sumasšéstvije), умопомеша́тельство (ru) n (umopomešátelʹstvo)
• Spanish: locura (es) f, lunatismo m (rare, Spain)
• Turkish: cinnet (tr), çılgınlık (tr), delilik (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: جنت (cinnet), مجنونلق (mecnunluk)

cyclical mental disease, apparently linked to the lunar phases

• Dutch: maanziekte (nl)

something deeply misguided

• Dutch: gekheid (nl), waanzin (nl)
• Finnish: hulluus (fi)
• French: ^{(please verify)} lunaire (fr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• German: ^{(please verify)} Wahnsinn (de)