When I took my first trip to Washington, D.C., one highlight was visiting the National Air and Space Museum. What struck me most was seeing two vessels in close proximity: the 1903 Wright Flyer, the first successful powered airplane; and the Apollo 11 command module, which returned the NASA astronauts from their 1969 voyage to the moon.
As I looked from one to the other, I found it almost inconceivable that only 66 years separated humankind from the day we rose about three metres off the ground to reaching the moon 384,400 kilometres away.
That has been on my mind given the Artemis 2 mission on the Orion spacecraft, dubbed “Integrity”. On its lunar flyby, April 6, the ship swung around the moon and behind the far side (commonly known as the dark side). For hours, the crew generated images and moments that reminded us of the power of science, collaboration and vision.
I think we needed that lift. Life on Earth can feel like we’re on the dark side these days.
The moon hasn’t only inspired our imagination; it has also shaped parts of our vocabulary. So in honour of the latest lunar loop, I thought I’d have a little fun with language. Here are some words and phrases that owe something to Earth’s steadfast orbiting companion.
The calendar is a good place to start. “Month” originally measured how long it took the moon to do a full cycle around our planet. “Moon” and “month” have the same root – the Old English mōnath, Old High German mānōd and Old Norse mānathr. And in our week, the word “Monday” is moon day, or “Lundi” in French.
Luna is Latin for moon, and there’s an old belief that the moon causes certain erratic behaviour. That’s how we got “lunatic” and “lunacy”.
A few pieces of our anatomy have moon roots too. The crescent shape at the base of your fingernail? That’s a “lunula”, from the Latin meaning little moon. “Meniscus”, the crescent-shaped fibrous cartilage in the knee, comes from the Greek mēniskos, a diminutive of mēnē or moon.
Without the moon, we wouldn’t have terms like “moonlighting” (a second job, often at night), “moonshine” (illegal production of alcohol, done secretly at night) or “moonshot” (ambitious goal).
We also wouldn’t have so many familiar figures of speech. “Once in a blue moon”, meaning seldom, comes from the rare appearance of a second full moon in a single calendar month. “Asking for the moon” is excessive or impossible demands. “Over the moon” is extreme happiness.
The moon has long been tied to aspects of romance. When we’re lost in love we’re “moonstruck”. Dreaming about someone is to “moon over them”. The sweet period of the first month of marriage was known as the “honeymoon”, which now describes a vacation for newlyweds. And “to the moon and back” expresses boundless love.
On Monday – moon day, no less – the Earth sent people to the moon and back. The Artemis 2 crew carried something special with them, the same thing Neil Armstrong took to the moon in 1969: a small piece of fabric from the Wright Flyer.
Stuart Foxman is a Toronto-based freelance writer, who helps clients’ products, services, ideas and organizations to come alive. Connect with me here on LinkedIn, or check me out at foxmancommunications.com where I share these blogs too. More original posts coming regularly about communications, information, motivation, writing, branding, creativity, media, marketing, persuasion, messages, learning, etc.
April 8, 2026