[Ads-l] Antedating of "Loony" (Adjective)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> Unsurprisingly, both cites are in HDAS II, though in shorter form.

Great citations, JL! The OED editors (and I) should have consulted
your wonderful compendium. Of course, Fred's 1991 article with the
intriguing Herman Melville citation was written prior to the 1997
copyright of volume 2 of the Random House Historical Dictionary of
American Slang (HDAS).

OED, HDAS, and Green's Dictionary of Slang all have entries for "loony
house". The OED has the earliest citation in 1903:

[Begin OED excerpt]
loony house noun
disparaging and now generally considered offensive. colloquial.

A hospital or institution for people with mental illness; a
psychiatric hospital or home; also (figurative) a place or scene of
extreme confusion or uproar; cf. earlier lunatic house n.

1903 Who struck Billy Patterson? Can you work the 13-14-1 puzzle..?
These, and numberless other grave problems have..set millions of
people to thinking and sent thousands to the looney house.
Ellinwood (Kansas) Leader 5 November
[End OED excerpt]

There was a "loony house" in New York in 1845 and 1846 although it was
not a psychiatric institution. The usage of "loony house" matched the
informal sense.

Year: 1846
Title: Second Report of the Prison Association of New York
Quote Page 88
Published by the Association, New York
https://books.google.com/books?id=y7YXAAAAYAAJ&q=loony#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
The keeper, however, convinced of the impropriety of thus overcharging
the prison, selects those whom he thinks most harmless, and they, to
the number of from 170 to 200, are disposed of in a small building
adjacent to the prison, called the Loony House. There, under the sole
control of a captain, selected from their own number, without beds or
even straw, arranged in rows upon the floor, they pass the night amid
oaths, and ribaldry, and obscene jests. The old Bridewell, or even
Newgate itself, might be challenged to produce a picture of greater
moral deformity, than is there presented.
[End excerpt]

Year: 1846
Book: Proceedings and Documents of the Board of Assistant Aldermen
>From November 17th, 1845, to May 11th, 1846
Volume 27
Letter Sent to the Mayor's Office, New York
Letter Date: February 2, 1846
Quote Page 129
Publication Information: Printed by Order of the Board, New York

[Begin excerpt]
The Grand Inquest, however, have called particular attention to the
building known as the "Loony House," they represent the condition of
its inmates to be not only wretched but disgusting, and express the
opinion that no time should be lost in alleviating their sufferings.
[End excerpt]

[Begin excerpt]
I have made enquiry of Morgan L. Mott, Esq. Keeper of the
Penitentiary, in reference to the fact set forth in the presentment of
the Grand Jury, and have been informed by him that the persons
confined in the "Loony House" are the most abject and miserable of the
vagrants committed by the Police Magistrates to the Penitentiary, that
they are either diseased, lame, blind, or idiotic, and unable to work,
and with but few exceptions pay no attention to personal
cleanliness...
[End excerpt]

Garson

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