Posted by Robert Dilley on June 21, 1999 at 15:47:49 from geog-rc2006f.lakeheadu.ca:
In Reply to: Re: Another unAmerican word - question posted by Jenna on June 18, 1999 at 15:23:11:
A fairly recent COD entry gives "loony", a slang form of lunatic, as an alternative derivation of "loon". I suspect that was Shakespeare's image: hard to think of a GN Diver with a cream face.
One of the more intensively Norse-settled areas of Britain is the Lake District, but in 40 years of studying the region I have never come across "loon" as a diver.