mooncalf

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See also: moon-calf

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From moon +‎ calf, after a superstition that the moon caused abnormal fetal development.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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mooncalf (plural mooncalves)

  1. (now rare) An abnormal mass within the uterus; a false conception. [from 16th c.]
  2. A poorly-conceived idea or plan. [from 17th c.]
  3. A dreamer, someone absent-minded or distracted; a fool, simpleton. [from 17th c.]
    • 1902, John Kendrick Bangs, chapter 10, in Olympian Nights[1], New York: Harper & Bros., page 185:
      [] you’re a jobbernowl and a doodle, a maundering mooncalf and a blockheaded numps, a gaby and a loon; you’re a Hatter!” I shrieked the last epithet.
    • 1957, Ogden Nash, “Come On In, The Senility Is Fine”, in You Can’t Get There From Here[2], Boston: Little, Brown & Co., page 66:
      But I can think of no one but a mooncalf or a gaby
      Who would trust their own child to raise a baby.
    • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 463:
      He slipped it softly onto her unresisting finger and, like the unwise moncalf he was, kissed it.
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