Mooncalf

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈmuːnkɑːf/

Alternative forms

• moon-calf

Origin

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

Full definition of mooncalf

Noun

1. (now rare) An abnormal mass within the uterus; a false conception. from 16th c.
• 1610, , by William Shakespeare, act 2 scene 2Thou art very Trinculo indeed! How cam'st thou
  to be the siege of this moon-calf? Can he vent Trinculos?
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, Olympian Nights, ch. 10:"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.
• circa 1950 Ogden Nash, "Come On In, The Senility Is Fine":But I can think of no one but a mooncalf or a gabyWho would trust their own child to raise a baby.
• 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 463:He slipped it softly onto her unresisting finger and, like the unwise moncalf he was, kissed it.

Related terms

• moon
• moonstruck
• moonbat