moonstruck

English

Etymology

From moon +‎ struck. Compare German Low German maansüchtig, German mondsüchtig.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmun.stɹʌk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

moonstruck (comparative more moonstruck, superlative most moonstruck)

1. (obsolete) Crazy or insane when affected by the phases of the Moon.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy

2. (by extension) Showing irrational behaviour, especially of a romantic or sentimental nature.
   • 1902, William James, “Lectures 4 & 5”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     [W]e can also overlook the verbiage of a good deal of the mind-cure literature, some of which is so moonstruck with optimism and so vaguely expressed that an academically trained intellect finds it almost impossible to read it at all.

   • 1925, Sinclair Lewis, “21, IV”, in Arrowsmith:

     The full moon was spacious now behind the maples. The seedy Pickerbaugh domain was enchanted […] and over all the world was the proper witchery of moonstruck love.

3. (obsolete) Made sick, or (like fishes) unsuitable for food, by the supposed influence of the Moon.

Synonyms

• moonstricken

Translations

crazy or insane when affected by the phases of the Moon

• Danish: månesyg c
• French: lunatique (fr) m or f
• German: mondsüchtig (de)
• Italian: lunatico (it) m (obsolete)
• Latin: lunaticus
• Portuguese: lunático (pt) m
• Russian: лунатик (ru) m (lunatik)
• Welsh: lloerig

showing irrational behaviour, especially of a romantic or sentimental nature

made sick, or (like fishes) unsuitable for food, by the supposed influence of the Moon

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)} mondsüchtig (de)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “moonstruck”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)