Milky Way
See also: Milky-Way
English
Etymology
From Middle English Milky Wey, a calque of Latin Via Lactea (literally “milky road”), 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”).
Proper noun
- (astronomy) The Milky Way Galaxy, the galaxy in which Earth is located; extension of the night sky phenomenon.
- Synonyms: Milky Way Galaxy, Galaxy, Local Galaxy
- Meronyms: Galactic Center, Sagittarius A*
- 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 […]
- (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.
Translations
galaxy
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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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Further reading
Milky Way on Wikipedia.Wikipedia - “Milky Way”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- “Milky Way”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
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