Cool Moon Facts by Whip

Real astronomy, with sources. Folklore & tradition.

Fact #049 Strange but true

'Lunatic' comes from the Latin word for moon. 'Month' and 'Monday' come from the Old English one, back when the Moon was the calendar.

The Moon was humanity's first reliable clock, a repeating unit longer than a day and shorter than a year, visible to everyone, needing no instruments. Nearly every ancient calendar started lunar. The words we still use for madness and for Monday are fossils of that.

Source: Oxford English Dictionary · checked Aug 2026

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