Mooncalf
A mooncalf (or moon-calf) is the abortive fetus of a cow or other farm animal. The term was occasionally applied to an abortive human fetus.
The term derives from the formerly widespread superstition, 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.
In H. G. Wells' 1901 novel The First Men in the Moon, large creatures domesticated by the Selenites are referred to as "mooncalves."[1]
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.
Mooncalf is also the name of a species of magical creatures in the world of the Harry Potter series. It is described in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them as a shy, nocturnal creature with a smooth, pale grey body, bulging eyes and four spindly legs with large flat feet. Mooncalfs perform dances in the moonlight, and are apparently responsible for crop circles.[2]
Wilfred Maxwell, narrator and protagonist of occultist Dion Fortune’s 1938 novel, The Sea Priestess, refers several times to a mentally handicapped character who falls into the sea and disappears as a "mooncalf."[3]
The Commodore refers to Enoch Thompson as a mooncalf in conversation with Sherrif Lindsay in season 5 of Boardwalk Empire.
