different between wingnut vs moonbat

English

Etymology

wing +? nut.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?w???n?t/

Noun

wingnut (plural wingnuts)

1. A deciduous tree of the genus Pterocarya native to Asia.
2. Alternative form of wing nut
3. (slang, derogatory) Someone with crazy or extreme political views (especially extreme conservative views).
4. (slang, derogatory, North American itinerant and street populations) A mentally ill homeless person.
5. (slang, derogatory) Someone perceived as odd, eccentric, and/or extreme.
6. (slang, rural US) A member of the air force (in a town that hosts a USAF installation).

Synonyms

• (tree of the genus Pterocarya): pterocarya
• (odd or eccentric person): nut case, crank, weirdo; see also Thesaurus:strange person
• (person of extreme political beliefs): extremist, radical; winger

Coordinate terms

• moonbat

Derived terms

• wingnuttery
• wingnutty

Translations

Further reading

• Wingnut (hardware) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Wingnut on the Word Detective.

English

Etymology

From moon +? bat, first used in the 1940s by the science-fiction writer Robert Heinlein, then used in the term “barking moonbat” coined in 1999 by Perry de Havilland of “The Libertarian Samizdata”, a right-libertarian weblog. This originally referred to both left-wing and right-wing crazy people. Sometimes wrongly claimed to be a corruption of Monbiot (from George Monbiot, British environmentalist and Guardian columnist).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mu?n?bæt/

Noun

moonbat (plural moonbats)

1. (informal, derogatory) A liberal (someone with a left-wing ideology).

   Synonyms: (derogatory) leftard, (derogatory) libtard

   Coordinate term: wing nut

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:moonbat.

Derived terms

• moonbattery
• moonbatty

Further reading

• The Samizdata glossary

References