Wiktionary

Milky Way

See also: Milky-Way

English

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Etymology

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From 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”). Reference to the galaxy is by extension of sense 2.

Pronunciation

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  • Audio (US):(file)

Proper noun

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the Milky Way

  2. (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 […]
  3. (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

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “Milky Way, n.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Further reading

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