Taxonomies: L
Loon.
It makes sense to begin explaining terms with this one, since it’s in the name of the blog.
My lovely 1961 reprint of the 1933 Oxford English Dictionary is uncertain of the word’s origins, but offers possible etymologies in early modern Dutch and Old Norse that suggest a person either innately stupid or “benumbed, weary, [or] exhausted”.
But the oldest meaning of “loon” that the O.E.D. acknowledges (from 1450 onwards) is “A worthless person; a rogue [or] scamp (esp. in false loon, to play the loon); a sluggard, idler.” In the same disparaging vein, it may also mean “A strumpet, concubine … A man of low birth or condition … A boor, lout, clown; an untaught, ill-bred person” but, as happens with such words, it may also be used more generally to indicate “A fellow, man, ‘chap’ “ or “A boy, lad, youth.”
Next up is the iconic waterfowl. “Any bird of the genus Colymbus, esp. the Great Northern Diver (C. glacialis), remarkable for its loud cry.” That loud cry itself is described by Henry David Thoreau thus: “This of the loon – I do not mean its laugh, but its looning, -- is a long-drawn call, as it were, sometimes singularly human to my ear.”
According to Wikipedia, however, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature “suppressed” the genus name Colymbus in 1956, due to conflicts in its use, and established Gavia as “the valid genus name for the loons,” and the Great Northern Diver, or common loon, is now known formally as Gavia immer.
Wikipedia also weighs in on etymology: “The North American name ‘loon’ likely comes from either the Old English word lumme, meaning lummox or awkward person, or the Scandinavian word lum meaning lame or clumsy. Either way, the name refers to the loon’s poor ability to walk on land.” (retrieved 1/25/2018, 5:56 pm)
But obviously, the “loon” most closely bound to a discussion of mental illness is the one that is short for “lunatic”, and entered the language, in the form of “loony”, “luny”, or “looney” sometime before Bret Harte wrote it into the Heiress of Red Dog in 1872, according to the O.E.D. (“Lunatic”, by the way, entered the written record circa 1290, as an adjective; as a noun meaning “a person of unsound mind”, it shows up in 1377.)
I would be remiss if I did not address the issue of ableist language and “loon” as an instance. I will be writing, often and at length, about words and concepts related to mental illness. Ableist language is an essential part of the project. I wanted a term that was obviously nonclinical, nonspecific, vernacular, and unpretentious to describe the various subjects of the effort to define and medicalize mental difference. I’d also been making the joke with my therapists for more than two decades. Yes, it is ableist language. If it’s the worst harm I do here, I won’t have done my job.
First posted 1/25/2018
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