loon

English Wikipedia has an article on:

loon

Wikipedia

• IPA^(key): /ˈluːn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːn

From Middle English louen, lowen (“rascal; rogue”), probably of Middle Dutch or Middle Low German origin. Compare Dutch loen (“simpleton”). Or, related to sense 2, due to the bird's loud cry.^[1] Folk etymology associates it slang-wise with lunatic, though the latter may have influenced it; see loony.

loon (plural loons)

1. (slang) A crazy or deranged person; a lunatic.
   • 1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 67:

     An electric fire came next, followed by an umbrella and then a colander. "This bowl will carry no water," he muttered. "Some loon hath pierced it with holes."

   • 1971, Marc Bolan (lyrics and music), “Cosmic Dancer”, in Electric Warrior, performed by T. Rex:

     What's it like to be a loon? / I liken it to a balloon

2. (obsolete) An idler, a lout.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 149:

     The diuell damne thee blacke, thou cream-fac'd Loone: Where got'ſt thou that Gooſe-looke.

3. (chiefly Scotland, Ulster) A boy, a lad.
4. (chiefly Scotland) A harlot; mistress.
5. (chiefly Scotland) A simpleton.
6. (Ireland, historical) An English soldier of an expeditionary army in Ireland.
7. (traffic engineering) A round area of pavement that protrudes from one side of a road to accommodate turning vehicles with a wide turning circle.

• (crazy person): lunatic, psycho, wacko
• (round area of pavement): bulb-out

• loons, loon pants

• looney, loony, loonie

Of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse lómr (“loon”), ultimately imitative of the bird's cry, particularly when it's in danger. Distantly related to lament, probably sharing Proto-Indo-European *leh₂- (expressive root).

loon (plural loons)

1. (US, Canada) Any of various birds, of the order Gaviiformes, of North America and Europe that dive for fish and have a short tail, webbed feet and a yodeling cry.
   • 1634, William Wood, “Of the Birds and Fowles both of Land and Water”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; , London: Tho Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, , →OCLC, 1st part, page 31:

     The Loone is an ill ſhap'd thing like a Cormorant; but that he can neyther goe nor flye; he maketh a noiſe ſometimes like a Sovvgelders horne.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H. L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 286:

     [O]h, yes! the loon does shriek dreadfully - particularly when there's fine rain […]

   • 1903, Zane Grey, Betty Zane, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC:

     He came again to her and she said: ‘Run swifter than the deer, be more cunning than the beaver, dive deeper than the loon.’

   • 1921, Edna St. Vincent Millay, “The Blue-Flag in the Bog”, in Second April‎:

     And I listened for a voice;— / But my heart was all I heard; / Not a screech-owl, not a loon, / Not a tree-toad said a word.

• (bird of order Gaviiformes): diver

• Arctic loon
• black-throated loon (Gavia arctica)
• great northern loon, common loon (Gavia immer)
• Pacific loon (Gavia pacifica)
• red-throated loon (Gavia stellata)
• yellow-billed loon (Gavia adamsii)
• loonie

• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967

• nolo

From Dutch loon, from Middle Dutch loon, from Old Dutch lōn.

• Audio:

  (file)

loon (plural lone, diminutive loontjie)

1. wage

• IPA^(key): /loːn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: loon
• Rhymes: -oːn
• Homophone: Loon

From Middle Dutch loon, from Old Dutch lōn, from Proto-West Germanic *laun.

loon n (plural lonen, diminutive loontje n)

1. wage, pay, reward

   Synonym: salaris

• Afrikaans: loon
• Negerhollands: loon

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

loon

1. inflection of lonen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

loon

1. plural of loo (“clearing”)

loon

1. Alternative spelling of loonna

• Ruben E. Nirvi (1971) Inkeroismurteiden Sanakirja, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, page 276
• Olga I. Konkova, Nikita A. Dyachkov (2014) Inkeroin Keel: Пособие по Ижорскому Языку‎, →ISBN, page 14

From Old Dutch *lōn, from Old Dutch *lōn, from Proto-West Germanic *laun.

lôon m or n

1. wage, payment for services or work
2. reward
3. value

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• lônen

• Dutch: loon
• Limburgish: loean

Dative plural of lô.

lôon ?

1. Borgloon (a city in modern Belgium)
2. Loon (a county)

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• Dutch: Loon, (compounded) Borgloon

• “loon (I)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• “loon (II)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “loon”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN

From Proto-Cushitic, from Proto-Afroasiatic. Cognates include Hadiyya laro, Saho laa, Afar láa, Somali lo', Boon loy, Burji láli, Gedeo lalo, Awngi əllwa, Blin ləwi, Xamtanga ləwa, Iraqw slee, Kw'adza hleko and Maay hliŋé.^[1]

loon

1. cattle

• Oromo Dictionary by Takilee Qinaaxxii

Uncertain, but compare English loon.

loon (plural loons)

1. (Doric Scots) boy, young man

   Synonyms: (in other dialects) lad, laddie