Milky Way
See also: Milky-Way
English
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English Milky Wey, a calque of Latin Via Lactea (literally “milky road”), a calque of Ancient Greek γαλαξίας (galaxías), referring to its appearance as a pale band of stars across the sky. Compare also Old English Īringes weġ (“Milky Way”), Old Norse Mjólkrhringr (“Milky Way”, literally “milk-ring, milk-circle”). The reference to the galaxy is an extension of the second sense.
Pronunciation
editProper noun
edit- (astronomy) The Milky Way Galaxy, the galaxy in which Earth is located. [from mid 19th c.][1]
- Synonyms: Milky Way Galaxy, Galaxy, Local Galaxy
- Meronyms: Galactic Center, Sagittarius A*
- 1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Solitude”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 144:
- This whole earth which we inhabit is but a point in space. How far apart, think you, dwell the two most distant inhabitants of yonder star, the breadth of whose disk cannot be appreciated by our instruments? Why should I feel lonely? is not our planet in the Milky Way?
- 2021, William Sheehan, Jim Bell, chapter 13, in Discovering Mars, page 294:
- From a cosmic perspective, even our host galaxy, the Milky Way, is not particularly special […]
- 2024 August 21, Ashley Strickland, “An unusual object is moving so fast it could escape the Milky Way. Scientists aren’t certain what it is”, in CNN[1]:
- By combining the data from multiple telescopes, astronomers determined the star’s position and velocity in space, allowing them to predict that it will exit the Milky Way at some point.
- (astronomy) A broad band of diffuse white light, visible in the night sky; our view of the dense portions of the Milky Way Galaxy from inside the galaxy. [from late 14th c.]
- Synonyms: Silvery River, Great Sky River
- 1869, Mark Twain, chapter XXXII, in The Innocents Abroad, page 348:
- […] a random shower of amber lights—a spray of golden sparks that […] glinted softly upon the sea of dark foliage like the pallid stars of the milky-way.
Derived terms
editTranslations
editgalaxy
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light in night sky
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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References
edit- ^ “Milky Way, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
Further reading
edit- Milky Way on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- “Milky Way”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- “Milky Way”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.