Kook

3 definitions found

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  kook
       n : someone regarded as eccentric or crazy and standing out from
           a group [syn: {odd fellow}, {odd fish}, {queer bird}, {queer
           duck}, {odd man out}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:



  57 Moby Thesaurus words for "kook":
     alien, aliene, bedlamite, borderline case, case, character,
     crackbrain, crackpot, crank, cuckoo, dement, demoniac, ding-a-ling,
     eccentric, energumen, erratic, fanatic, flake, fou, freak,
     harebrain, hermit, hobo, idiot, lone wolf, loner, loon, loony,
     lunatic, madman, maniac, maverick, meshuggenah, natural, noncompos,
     nonconformist, nut, odd fellow, oddball, oddity, original,
     outsider, pariah, phrenetic, queer duck, queer fish,
     queer specimen, rara avis, raving lunatic, recluse, screwball,
     solitary, strange duck, tramp, type, weirdo, zealot
  
  

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  kook [Usenet; originally and more formally, `net.kook'] Term used to
     describe a regular poster who continually posts messages with no
     apparent grounding in reality. Different from a {troll}, which implies a
     sort of sly wink on the part of a poster who knows better, kooks really
     believe what they write, to the extent that they believe anything.
  
     The kook trademark is paranoia and grandiosity. Kooks will often build
     up elaborate imaginary support structures, fake corporations and the
     like, and continue to act as if those things are real even after their
     falsity has been documented in public.
  
     While they may appear harmless, and are usually filtered out by the
     other regular participants in a newsgroup of mailing list, they can
     still cause problems because the necessity for these measures is not
     immediately apparent to newcomers; there are several instances on
     record, for example, of journalists writing stories with quotes from
     kooks who caught them unaware.
  
     An entertaining web page chronicaling the activities of many notable
     kooks can be found at `http://www.crank.net/usenet.html'.