lunatik

Middle English

Etymology

From Latin lūnāticus and Old French lunatique.

Adjective

lunatik

1. suffering from madness (believed to be) due to varying lunar phases
   • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎^[1], published c. 1410, Matheu 4:24, page 1v, column 1, lines 18–23; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

     and hıs fame .· wente in to al ſirie / ⁊ þei bꝛouȝten to hĩ alle þat weren at male eeſe · ⁊ þat weren take wiþ dyīiſe langoꝛes ⁊ turmentis / and hem þat haddẽ fendis · ⁊ lunatik men · ⁊ men in þe paleſie .· ⁊ he heelide hem /

     And his fame went into all Syria; and they brought to him all that were at mal-ease, and that were taken with diverse languors and torments, and them that had fiends, and lunatic men, and men in palsy, and he healed them.[2]

2. varying with the moon
   • c. 1450 (?c. 1408), Lydgate’s Reson and Sensuallyte, […] for the Early English Text Society by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Limited, […], published 1901, page 162:

     Ther [women’s] sect ys no thing lunatyke, / Nor of kynde they be nat lyke / To no monys that be wane, […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Alternative forms

• lunatick, lunatijk, lunatyk, lunatyke
• lynatik (error)

Derived terms

• passioun lunatik

Descendants

• English: lunatic

References

• “lūnā̆tik, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Noun

lunatik

1. (countable) one subject to madness (believed to be) due to varying lunar phases
   • c. 1400 (c. 1378), The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman, Together with Vita de Dowel, Dobet, et Dobest, Secundum Wit et Resoun, London: […] for the Early English Text Society, by N. Trübner & Co., […], published 1869, page 6:

     Þanne loked vp a lunatik · a lene þing with-alle, […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (uncountable) madness (believed to be) due to varying lunar phases
   • a. 1500, English Mediaeval Lapidaries, The Early English Text Society, published 1960, page 77:

     […] þe red [stone calidonie] is gode aȝens a malady þat men clepen lunatix, wherby he falleþ, & wherby he is foolych & wytles & falleþ þer-with long tyme; […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Alternative forms

• lunatix, lunatyk(e)
• lymatyke (error)

Descendants

• English: lunatic

References

• “lūnā̆tik, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Related terms

• luna
• lunacioun
• lunare
• lunarie