meaning - How did "lunatic" evolve to mean "crazy"?

I know what the word "lunatic" means and it has something to do with the "Moon" as the "Online Etymology Dictionary" explains:

late 13c., "affected with periodic insanity, dependent on the changes
of the moon," from Old French lunatique, lunage "insane," or directly
from Late Latin lunaticus "moon-struck," from Latin luna "moon" (see
Luna). Compare Old English monseoc "lunatic," literally "moon-sick;"
Middle High German lune "humor, temper, mood, whim, fancy" (German
Laune), from Latin luna. Compare also New Testament Greek seleniazomai
"be epileptic," from selene "moon." Lunatic fringe (1913) apparently
was coined by U.S. politician Theodore Roosevelt.

1. "Lunar" and "Lunatic" seem to have evolved in a different way. Was there any etymological reason why they had to use "lunatic" in place of "lunar" for "crazy"? How did "lunatic" evolve to mean "crazy"? (I could guess, but I don't exactly understand what "moon-struck" and "moon-sick" mean in the the above.)




2. Does suffix "-tic" have any special function itself or was it just used to make a different adjective from "lunar" because the Moon was called "luna" in Latin? I found a list of words that ends with "-tic", but I can't find anything in common.




3. If someone was called crazy just because he was affected by the Moon's cycle, is there a word that has anything to do with the Sun's cycle meaning "a bit less crazy" or "more mentally stable than lunatic", etc?




4. Why does "lunatic" have a stronger connotation than crazy, insane, out of mind, etc.?

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Edit: @Elian commented, "In France, lunatique means something along the lines of erratic or mercurial."

Answer

It was believed that epilepsy seizures were triggered by moonlight hence lunatic was used for those patients.

Luna gives the adjective lunaticus. This appears in the Vulgate (405) of the Dalmatian Christian writer Saint Jerome (Eusebius Hieronymus, 348–420) as an epithet for “a moon-struck” person, whence “crazed, insane, lunatic.” It was used of epilepsy, from the notion that the seizures were precipitated by moonlight. The paroxysmal nature of the disease was thought to be dependent upon the phases of the moon.

Lexicon Orthopaedic Etymology

There is also a scientific publication titled The disease of the moon: the linguistic and pathological evolution of the English term "lunatic" from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov that the origin of the word is related to epilepsy:

The original meaning of the term “lunaticus” is not related only to insanity. In particular, its first use is documented in the Vulgate, the fifth-century Latin version of the Bible,translated from the Ancient Greek by Jerome (347–420) on commission of Pope Damasus.

In the Gospel of Matthew (17: 15–18), a father asks Jesus to cure his son because he is “lunaticus” (“Domine, misere filio meo, quia lunaticus est, et male patitur: nam saepecadit in ignem et crebro in aquam. [
. . .
] Et increpavit illum Jesus et exit ab eo daemo-nium et curatus est puer ex illa hora”). This episode is translated in the Bible of King James (1611) as follows: “Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed; for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water [
. . .
] And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.” When this passage is compared with the other synoptic gospels (Luke 9: 37–43; Mark 9: 17–29), the most accurate description of the same episode leads us to understand that the boy is affected by epilepsy.

The term “lunaticus est” is the Latin translation of the Greek verb
“
σεληνιαζεται
”
(“seleniazetai”), which includes the prefix
selen-
(from
σεληνη
- the ancient Greek word for the moon). Therefore, the original meaning of the term “lunatic” seems to be linked to epilepsy, rather than insanity.

You can read about the legal category of lunacy and the history of the word in psychiatry in the book The Moon and Madness
(By Niall McCrae).

conversation - Decent way to say "I would have gone to say XXX if you didn't mention YYY'"

I need help from a native speaker on this question A hypothetical scenario is as below:

A friend comes to you and says, "Coffee?". However, before he asked me, I was thinking of saying "Have a coffee break?" to him.

I might compose a response like the following; but are there more decent ways?

"Oh great! I'd have asked you to have a cup of coffee if you didn't ask!"

grammatical number - Forming the possessive of a username that is a contraction

Suppose there was a user of one of these sites whose handle was Won't. How would one form the possessive of this username to refer to that user's post?*

Won't's answer

Given that the 's possessive construction is apparently derived from a contraction, and the existence of a fair number of double contractions, I suspect this first one might be correct, but frankly, it looks weird to me.

Won'ts answer

One apostrophe in its usual place looks a little better to me, but it also looks like it might be a pluralization,** even though that doesn't make sense in context. This choice might read confusingly.

Wont's answer

This seems to be a non-starter, since it changes the name for the sake of forming the possessive.

Is the first one right, or is there a possibility I've missed?*

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*Aside from using "the post by Won't" or similar rewriting.
**Especially given "Do's" and "don'ts" or "do's" and "don't's"?

Answer

Your first formation (Won't's) is correct. It looks weird, perhaps, because it's an unusual situation, but there you have it. If somebody uses a contracted word as his/her username or handle, forming the possessive is going to look strange. Just gotta live with it!

to + present tense use

Is it correct to write:

"Our family is dedicated to perfecting the art of pizza cooking"

Instead of the canonical:

"Our family is dedicated to perfect the art of pizza cooking"

I think I read the former more often although grammatically the obvious pick is the second one.

Answer

Actually, the "to" in "dedicate to" is a verb particle. As such "Our family is dedicated to ..." has nothing to do with the use of the infinitive (to + verb) following the verb dedicate. Instead it has to do with the fact that dedicate is a phrasal verb.

So yes, it is correct to use the gerund form (verb + ing) of a verb, as you did with "perfecting," after dedicate to.

From my ear, I hear a slightly different meaning though in what they express each of these.

Our family is dedicated to perfecting the art of pizza cooking

This sounds like perfecting is a continual process and they will continue doing this until the end of time.

Our family is dedicated to perfect the art of pizza cooking.

This sounds to me like you will eventually perfect it and then there will be no more work to do.

grammar - Clause Question

I was going through a reading and this construction confused the student:

“Will we be able to talk?” I asked, my eyes red and swollen from
crying, a balled up tissue squeezed tightly between my sweaty palms.

She understood the words; it was the construction that confused her. I could explain what it meant in that context, but I didn't have a good explanation for that construction, generally. So in the above example, how would you classify "my eyes red and swollen from crying, a balled up tissue squeezed tightly between my sweaty palms"? Is it an appositive? Some kind of relative clause? Something else? A noun phrase?

parentheses - Parenthesis for English name(foreigner)

I have an English name but that English name is not shown on my passport or birth certificate. However, I would like to be known by that English name. How should I show people that I would like to be know by that name?

For example, my legal name is Jia Wen Lee. If I want to be known by my English name, can I put my name as Jia Wen Lee(Jane) ?

Thanks for reading through and helping me!

verbs - When is the present perfect tense used instead of the past tense?

When is the present perfect tense used instead of the past tense?

I know that the present perfect tense is used when some adverbs (e.g., never, ever) are present in the sentence; the same is true for sentences like the following one.

When you returned, I have been at home since 3:00 PM.

In which other cases should I use the present perfect? Do the following sentences require it?

I have walked downtown everyday for a year.

I have been at home since 3:00 PM.

Answer

The present perfect is used for unfinished or undefined time. I don't think your example is correct, since for a year is understood to be a finished time. A time period of one year. It would have been correct if you wrote:

I have walked downtown every day this year.

In that case you'd have unfinished time. The time period would be up to and including now. If you used a defined and finished time in the past like last august, then you'd have to use the simple past.

I walked downtown every day last August.

Since last August is finished time, you have to use the simple past.