After using the phrase "as crazy as a loon," I wondered where it dervived from. Loons aren't all that odd, after all. It must come with the word "loony" which seems to be different (according to Etymology.com) from the bird. The bird loon seems to have derived from a Scandanavian source (cf. Norw. lom, from O.N. lomr). Yet the loon meaning "crazy person" seemed to originate from Dutch loen meaning "stupid person."

Does anyone know anything more?

Loons do sound - err, loony. Maybe that helps. It certainly has nothing to do with the Canadian dollar, which is a lot less loony than the US dollar despite its nickname.
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There might be some connection (folk etymologically speaking) to lunatic, literally 'affected by the moon' < Latin luna 'moon'.

Loony does seem to be associated with lunatic. Historical Dictionary of American Slang has loon as "crazy person," which also apples to loony, looney tunes, and loony bird. An insane asylum is called a loony bin, loony farm, loony house,or Loonyville. The loony platoon is a military unit composed of misfits of one kind or anther.
What's interesting is that, despite its comprehensive listings, the HDAS has nothing for crazy as a loon, just ...like a fox.

Richard H Thornton in An American Glossary: Being an Attempt to Illustrate Certain Americanisms Upon Historical Principles (1912) has citations for "crazy as a loon" in 1848 and 1854 (link).

Also loony doctor is a psychiatrist or psychoanylyst.

The OED Online gives 4 entries for the noun loon (date in parenthesis is first citation):

• loon, n.1
  1. A worthless person; a rogue, scamp (esp. in false loon, to play the loon); a sluggard, idler. c 1450
  b. Of a woman: A strumpet, concubine. (c1560)
  2. A man of low birth or condition; in phrase lord and loon. Now only arch. (1535)
  3. A boor, lout, clown; an untaught, ill-bred person. (1619)
  4. A fellow, man, ‘chap’.)a1550)
  5. A boy, lad, youth. (c1560)
  
  
• loon, n.2
  [App. an alteration of LOOM n.2 q.v., perh. by assimilation to prec. n.]
  
  A name for certain aquatic birds.
  
  1. a. Any bird of the genus Colymbus, esp. the Great Northern Diver (C. glacialis), remarkable for its loud cry.
  1634 W. WOOD New Eng. Prosp. (1865) 34 The Loone is an ill shap'd thing like a Cormorant.
  1672 J. JOSSELYN New Eng. Rarities 12 The Loone is a Water Fowl, alike in shape to the Wobble.
  1678 RAY Willughby's Ornith. 341 Greatest speckled-Diver, or Loon.
  1759 B. STILLINGFL. tr. Biberg's Econ. Nature Misc. Tracts (1762) 90 The diver or loon..lays also two eggs.
  1766 PENNANT Zool. (1768) II. 414 On the Thames they [the grey speckled divers] are called Sprat loons, for they attend that fish during its continuance in the river.
  1831 A. Wilson & Bonaparte's Amer. Ornith. III. 255 Colymbus glacialis..Great Northern Diver, or Loon.
  1839 MARRYAT Diary Amer. Ser. I. I. 187 Listening to the whistling of the solitary loon.
  1860 All Year Round No. 75. 586 The loons hallooed and laughed at our approach.
  1880 M. FITZGIBBON Trip to Manitoba ix. 101 The weird cry of the loon diving.
  
  1. b. In phrases with loon's (see quots.). Also freq. as crazy as a loon (in reference to its actions in escaping from danger and its wild cry) and varr.; so, as drunk as a loon; to hunt the loon (see quot. 1880).
  
  1830 Kentucky Intelligencer (Flemingsburg) 29 May 4 Patton informed me that McLaughlin had just gone from Elizabethville, and was ‘drunk as a loon’.
  1834 C. A. DAVIS Lett. J. Downing 42, I saw thru' it in a minute, and made it all as strait as a loon's leg.
  1834 S. SMITH Sel. Lett. J. Downing 110 He begun to sing out like a loon for us to come and take him.
  1840 C. F. HOFFMAN Greyslaer I. I. xi. 129 After tramposing for twenty-four hours on a stretch, with not even a loon's nap at the end of it.
  1845 C. M. KIRKLAND Western Clearings 83 Why, you're both as crazy as loons!
  1865 ‘MARK TWAIN’ in Harte & ‘Twain’ Sk. Sixties (1926) 163 Our reserve..came filing down the street as drunk as loons.
  1880 Harper's Mag. Dec. 31 Miss Lois had been hunting the loon with a hand-net{em}a Northern way of phrasing the wearing of the willow.
  1931 W. FAULKNER Sanctuary vi. 57 You're as crazy as a loon.
  1934 J. T. FARRELL Young Manhood xxiv. 398 Jesus, I'm drunk as a loon. I'm drunk, Kelly. Drunk.
  1951 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xv. 66 Crazy as a loon.
  
  1. c. transf. A crazy person; a simpleton.
  Perhaps influenced by LOONY a. and n. (1885)
  
  2. a. The Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus). b. The Little Grebe or Dabchick ( P. fluviatilis or minor ). (1678)
  
  3. An early type of guided missile developed by the U.S. Navy. (1947)
  
  4. attrib., as loon-skin. (1807)
  
  Hence looning nonce-wd., the cry of the loon.
  1857 THOREAU Maine W. (1894) 307 This of the loon{em}I do not mean its laugh, but its looning,{em}is a long-drawn call, as it were, sometimes singularly human to my ear.
  
  
• loon, n.3
  = LAND n.1 7. (1611)
  (land, n.1 7. One of the strips into which a corn-field, or a pasture-field that has been ploughed, is divided by water-furrows. Often taken as a measure of land-area and of length, of value varying according to local custom.) (1377)
  
  
• loon, n.4
  colloq.
  
  pl. A style of close-fitting casual trousers widely flared from the knees to the ankles. Also (in sing.) attrib., as loon pants, trousers. (1971)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tinman,

Loon pants? Really?

Well, it was in 1971. Weren't bell bottoms in then? Perhaps loon pants was another name for them? Just a thought.

Maybe you're as smart as a crow.
check out the story about this smart bird.
But most of all notice the name of the scientist (half-way down) who is studying the animal.

loon pants

Seems to have been a British term from the late '60s into the '70s. They tended to be bell-bottoms made from old curtain velvet.

Here's what Wikipedia says:

• Loon pants (shortened from "balloon pants") were one type of bell-bottomed trousers. They flared more from the knee than typical bell-bottoms, in which more of the entire leg was flared.They could be seen worn occasionally by the go-go dancers on the British TV music variety show Ready Steady Go! in 1966. They were a 1970s fashion, and could initially only be bought via catalog from a company in Britain which advertised in the back of the New Musical Express.[citation needed] They were usually worn with a Led Zeppelin T-shirt and sandals. They became associated with disco music. When the disco backlash started in 1979, bell bottoms started to go out of fashion along with leisure suits and other clothes that had become associated with disco. Elephant bells, popular in the early and mid 1970s, were similar to loon pants but typically made of denim. Elephant bells had a marked flare below the knee, often covering the wearer's shoes.

The Compact Oxford English Dictionary and MSN Encarta have similar definitions, as does the OED Online, but they differ on the etymology.

Wikipedia says it came from a shortening of baloon pants.

The COED says "unknown origin."


MSN Encarta says it came from "loon2":

• 1. offensive term: an offensive term that deliberately insults somebody's mental condition or intelligence (slang insult )
  
  2. Scotland boy:: a boy or young man
  
  [15th century. Origin ?]

The OED Online says it came from the verb loon:

• [Etym. unknown.]
  
  intr. Esp. of young people: to spend one's leisure time in a pleasurable way, e.g. by dancing to popular music; to lie about or wander about. So {sm}looner, one who loons; {sm}looning vbl. n. Cf. LOON n.4
  
  1966 Melody Maker 30 July 8/6 The younger members of the MM staff spend a lot of time doing something called ‘looning’. To judge by their general condition the next morning I gather this is what used to be known as ‘raving’.
  1969 It 4-17 July 12/2 It's sort of music essentially to loon about to.
  1969 Daily Tel. 14 July 11 (heading) Long enough to loon in. Ibid., A fashion designer..has just completed his first collection of clothes aimed purely for after work. He calls them ‘looning’ clothes.
  1969 Melody Maker 13 Sept. 12/4 In the company of looners like Eric Burdon and Brian Auger, Zoot was the king looner. Zoot became a much beloved symbol of good fun and good time music.
  1971 It 2-16 June 21/3 Children and the younger adults alike looning about in wonderful costumes.

The OED Online also lists the obsolete word loonery:

quote:

[f. LOON n.1 + -ERY.]

The disposition and habits of a loon or rascal; lechery, villany.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tinman,

As usual, Tinman, your research is outstanding!