moonstruck
adjective

affected by (or as if by) the moon: such as
a : mentally unbalanced
b : romantically sentimental
c : lost in fantasy or reverie

Merriam-Webster

Use the adjective moonstruck to mean crazy or insane, connect it to being irrationally lovesick or romantic, or to living in a fantasy world.

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ORIGIN

Moonstruck stems from an ancient belief that the moon could actually cause insanity. The first written use is found in John Milton’s 1674 epic poem “Paradise Lost” where “moon-struck madness” is included in a list of humanity’s afflictions caused by original sin.

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GONDOLAS IN ROME?

During the production of the 1992 film ‘Once Upon a Crime’, Richard Lewis became MOONSTRUCK with his sexy co-star, actress Sean Young.

Lewis later recalled that he had hoped to work with her a little more. “I asked Dino De Laurentiis, the producer, to throw in a sex scene in a gondola,” Lewis explained. “He said, ‘No, we’re in Rome.’”

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SYNONYMS

English contains numerous synonyms for mentally unbalanced, including:

as mad as a March hare, as mad as a hatter, away with the fairies, barking mad, bats in the belfry, birdbrained, brain-dead, cockamamy, cockeyed, cuckoo, daft as a brush, doolally, dotty, dunderheaded, feather-brained, foaming at the mouth, gaga, half-baked, hare-brained, having a screw loose, having kangaroos in the top paddock, lame-brained-loco, loony, MOONSTRUCK, mutton-headed, nobody home, non compos (mentis), not all there, not quite right, nuts, nutty as a fruitcake, off the rails, off-the-wall, one card shy of a full deck, one sandwich short of a picnic, out in left field, out of one’s head, out to lunch, pea-brained, scatterbrained, touched in the head, unhinged, wooden-headed

and numerous synonyms for romantically irrational, including:

beguiled, besotted, bewitched, bowled over by, captivated by, carried away by, carrying a torch for, charmed, consumed with desire for, crazy about, dotty about, eat sleep and breathe, enamoured, enchanted, enraptured, enthralled, entranced, fanatical about, far gone on, gaga about, have a thing about, head over heels, hopelessly in love with, hung up on, infatuated by, love-struck, lovey-dovey, mad about, mesmerised, MOONSTRUCK, nuts about, obsessed with, possessed by, potty about, really into, silly about, single-minded about, smitten with, spellbound, sweet on, swept off one’s feet by, taken with, turned on by, twitterpated by, under the spell of, wild about

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LUNAR IDIOMS

- over the moon = to be extremely happy and/or excited (She was over the moon about the visit of her daughter.)

- once in a blue moon = a long period of time; a very rare occurrence (Lottery players win big, once in a blue moon.)

- promise the moon = to make a big promise, to promise something that you can’t give or to promise something that is difficult to keep (I was promised the moon at the job interview, a year later I’m very disappointed.)

- shoot for the moon = to set high goals to do something very difficult, or almost impossible (We need an ambitious development team that will shoot for the moon.)

- love someone to the moon and back = to love someone very deeply (Jim loved Julie to the moon and back.)

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PRACTICE OWAD in an English conversation, discuss something like:

“Their new head of marketing is MOONSTRUCK, I wonder how long he will last.”

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Paul Smith