moonstruck, ppl. a.
(ˈmuːnstrʌk)
[f. moon n.1 + struck, pa. pple. of strike v. Cf. Ps. cxxi. 6 and late Gr. σεληνόβλητος, -πληκτος.]
1. Affected in mind or deranged in conduct (through the supposed influence of the moon); in early use and arch. = lunatic; now implying a distracted or dazed condition apparently due to some mental obsession.
| 1674 Milton P.L. xi. 486 And Moon struck madness, pining Atrophie. 1742 Pope Dunc. iv. 12 The moon-struck Prophet felt the madding hour. 1849 Dickens Dav. Copp. xxxiii, I, the moon-struck slave of Dora, perambulated round and round the house and garden for two hours. 1852 M. Arnold Tristr. & Iseult i. 209 ‘Up, Tristram, up!’..‘thou moonstruck knight! What foul fiend rides thee?’ 1885–94 R. Bridges Eros & Psyche Mar. xxii, Deform'd in body, and of moonstruck mind. |
2. (See quots. and cf. moon-blind 2.)
| 1846 S. Lee Afr. Wanderers xviii, I was afraid I was moon-struck [note, by sleeping in the open air]. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Moon-struck, an influence imputed to the moon in the tropics, by which fish..though recently taken, become intenerated, and even spoiled... Human beings are also said to be injured by sleeping in the moon's rays. |