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==Modern usage== |
==Modern usage== |
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| ⚫ | Mooncalf is used as a derogatory term to indicate someone is a dullard, fool or otherwise not particularly bright or sharp. For example, [[W. C. Fields]] in "[[The Bank Dick]]" (1940) advises his prospective son-in-law to avoid being a "mooncalf" by buying shares he has been beguiled into believing are worth much more than the proffered price. |
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==Use in fiction== |
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The term came to be used to also refer to any monstrous or grotesque thing. [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]], for instance, used the term to describe [[Caliban (character)|Caliban]], the deformed servant of [[Prospero]], in ''[[The Tempest (play)|The Tempest]]''. |
The term came to be used to also refer to any monstrous or grotesque thing. [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]], for instance, used the term to describe [[Caliban (character)|Caliban]], the deformed servant of [[Prospero]], in ''[[The Tempest (play)|The Tempest]]''. |
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| ⚫ | Mooncalf is used as a derogatory term to indicate someone is a dullard, fool or otherwise not particularly bright or sharp. For example, [[W. C. Fields]] in "[[The Bank Dick]]" (1940) advises his prospective son-in-law to avoid being a "mooncalf" by buying shares he has been beguiled into believing are worth much more than the proffered price. |
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* In [[H. G. Wells]]'s ''[[First Men in the Moon]]'', Mooncalves are a type of giant [[caterpillar]]-like creature found on the moon. |
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*In [[Bruce Cordell]]'s [[Dungeons & Dragons]]'s adventure ''[[Heart of Nightfang Spire]]'', the mooncalf is a large fictional creature possessed of bat wings and many tentacles that are sometimes encountered on "mountain tops, the tips of tall hills, and generally lonely, desolate places." |
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* [[Neil Gaiman]]'s 1996 BBC serial [[Neverwhere]] has Tooley the [[jester]] use the term to describe Richard's predicament or person.{{Clarify|date=August 2009}} |
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*[[Jack Vance]] uses the term 15 times in his collected works.<ref>Totality Online - Search the complete works of Jack Vance, http://www.pharesm.org </ref> |
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*In [[Gerald Durrell]]'s fantasy book ''[[The Talking Parcel]]'', the mooncalf is a large fictional creature with the head of a cow and body of a snail which lives in the land of [[Mythologia]]. The mooncalf has three spigots on the back of its shell for warm milk, cold milk, and cream, and leaves a trail of mooncalf [[Gelatin|jelly]] which can be [[psychokinesis|willed (by the mind)]] into different shapes. |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
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Revision as of 14:05, 10 August 2009
Mooncalf was a term formerly ascribed to the abortive fetus of a cow or other farm animal, and also occasionally to that of a human.
The term arose from the formerly widespread belief, present in many European folk traditions, that such malformed creatures were the product of the sinister influence of the moon on fetal development.
Modern usage
The term came to be used to also refer to any monstrous or grotesque thing. Shakespeare, for instance, used the term to describe Caliban, the deformed servant of Prospero, in The Tempest.
Mooncalf is used as a derogatory term to indicate someone is a dullard, fool or otherwise not particularly bright or sharp. For example, W. C. Fields in "The Bank Dick" (1940) advises his prospective son-in-law to avoid being a "mooncalf" by buying shares he has been beguiled into believing are worth much more than the proffered price.