| 释义 |
lunar, a. and n.|ˈl(j)uːnə(r)|
[ad. L. lūnār-is, f. lūna moon: see -ar.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of or belonging to the moon; situated in the moon; formerly often, influenced by or dependent upon the moon, or supposed to be so.
lunar race: a legendary race of Indian kings (Candrávança) supposed to have been descended from the moon.
1626Bacon Sylva §493 They haue denominated some Herbs Solar and some Lunar. 1661Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. Introd., The Lunar [animals] are the cat, beaver, dog, goat, hart, otter. 1762Hoole Tasso's Jerus. Delivered viii. 232 There full the lunar beam resplendent play'd. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) I. 255 There are solar tides, and lunar tides. 1800tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 352 The alchemists gave the name of Solar Metals to those which are coloured; and that of Lunar to those which are white. 1841Elphinstone Hist. Ind. I. 259 The lunar race has but forty-eight names in the same period, in which the solar has ninety-five. 1854W. K. Kelly Arago's Astron. (ed. 5) 73 The existence of lunar volcanoes is in no wise demonstrated. 1878Abney Photogr. (1881) 303 Lunar photography. 1958Observer 17 Aug. 1/6 It was new moon on Friday, and the ‘lunar probe’ must be launched in the next two or three days or postponed for a month. 1971Sci. Amer. Oct. 49/3 Type D material consisted of miscellaneous fines smaller than a centimeter in diameter, material sometimes called lunar soil. 1972Science 2 June 1014/3 It is appropriate to define the base of the ‘lunar crust’ at the discontinuity at 65 km.
b. Specialized collocations.
lunar cycle = Metonic cycle (see cycle n. 2). lunar day, the interval of time between two successive crossings of the meridian by the moon. lunar dial (see quot.). lunar distance, in Naut. Astr., the distance of the moon from the sun, a planet, or a fixed star, which is used in calculating longitude at sea. lunar equation, the intercalation of a lunar month after three lunar years; also, the correction of the epact in the Gregorian calendar necessitated by the error of the lunar cycle. lunar horoscope (see quot.). lunar hour, the 24th part of a lunar day. lunar mansion (see mansion). lunar method, in Naut. Astr., the method of determining longitude at sea by means of lunar distances. lunar month, the interval from one new moon to the next, about 29½ days; in popular language often used for a period of 28 days (four weeks). lunar nodes, the point at which the orbit of the moon cuts the ecliptic. lunar observation, in Naut. Astr., an observation of lunar distances in finding the longitude at sea. lunar orbit, (a) the orbit of the moon around the earth; (b) an orbit around the moon. lunar rainbow, one formed by the moon's rays. lunar star, a star whose geocentric distance from the moon is given in the Nautical Almanac for certain hours, so that the longitude may be found from them. lunar tables, (1) tables of the moon's motion from which its true place at any time may be found; (2) logarithmic tables for correcting the apparent distance of the moon from a star, on account of refraction and parallax. lunar theory, the deduction of the moon's motion from the law of gravitation. lunar window, a launch window for a mission to the moon. lunar year, a period consisting of twelve lunar months (about 3541/3 days).
1704Harris Lex. Techn. s.v. Cycle of the Moon, Enneadecaterides is, with some, the Name of this *Lunar Cycle.
1686Goad Celest. Bodies i. xii. 58 As there is a Lunar Month consisting of 28 or 29 Days, so there is a *Lunar Day. 1862Bache Discuss. Magn. & Meteorol. Observ. iii. 8 The curves..show two east and two west deflections in a lunar day.
1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v. Dial, Moon-Dial, or *Lunar Dial, is that which shews the hour of the night by means of the light, or shadow, of the moon, projected thereon from an index.
1830Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil. 27 A page of ‘*lunar distances’ from the Nautical Almanack.
1712Desaguliers tr. Ozanam's Geog. 66 The Addition of 30 Days to the third Lunar Year, is call'd the *Lunar Equation.
1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v. Horoscope, *Lunar Horoscope is the point which the moon issues out of, when the sun is in the ascending point of the east. This is also called the part of fortune.
1862Bache Discuss. Magn. & Meteorol. Observ. iii. 1 Each observation was marked with its corresponding *lunar hour.
1860Worcester, *Lunar method.
1594Blundevil Exerc. iii. i. xlv. (1636) 358 The *Lunar month is that space of time which the Moone spendeth while she departing from the Sunne, returneth to him againe. 1727–41Chambers Cycl., Lunar periodical Months, consist of twenty seven days, seven hours, and a few minutes. Lunar synodical Months consist of twenty nine days, twelve hours, and three quarters of an hour. 1766Blackstone Comm. II. 141 A month in law is a lunar month, or twenty eight days, unless otherwise expressed. 1883P. Schaff Hist. Church I. ii. xvi. 133 The month Nisan was the first of the twelve lunar months of the Jewish year.
1715tr. Gregory's Astron. I. 37 If the abovementioned meeting of the Sun, and *Lunar Node, happens on the very Day of the New Moon.
1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxxi. 112 The Captain got a *lunar observation as well as his meridian altitude.
1728Chambers's Cycl. II. 578/1 The transverse Diameter of the *Lunar Orbit. 1834M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sci. ii. 10 The reaction of that matter on the moon is the cause of a corresponding nutation in the lunar orbit. 1968Guardian 28 Dec. 9/1 The Lunar Landing Module..will shuttle two astronauts from lunar orbit, down to the moon's surface. 1969Daily Mail 14 Jan. 1/2 For us, lunar orbit was the busiest time of the flight. 1969New Scientist 17 July 114/2 They are inserted into an elliptical lunar orbit varying between 60 and 170 nautical miles above the Moon's surface.
1711Thoresby in Phil. Trans. XXVII. 320 An Account of a *Lunar Rain-bow seen in Darbyshire.
1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxiii. 74 He knew every *lunar star in both hemispheres.
1864Webster, *Lunar Tables.
1834M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sci. vi. 34 In the *lunar theory the sun is the great disturbing cause. 1883Encycl. Brit. XVI. 800/1 The modern lunar theory commenced with Newton.
1969Guardian 15 Jan. 18/2 A *lunar window exists for Russia at the moment. 1970N. Armstrong et al. First on Moon ii. 33 The time of launch..had been chosen with great care. The date and the hour had been fixed to take full advantage of the so-called ‘lunar window’.
1594Blundevil Exerc. iii. i. xliv. (1636) 357 Of *lunar yeeres there be two kinds, whereof the one is ordinary,..and the other extraordinary or excessive,..the ordinarie or common yeere, is the space of twelve Moones or changes. Ibid., The extraordinarie Lunar yeere..is the space of thirteene Moones or changes containing 384 daies. 1835Thirlwall Greece I. 221 The Greeks had begun to compensate for the defect of the lunar year, by the occasional addition of an intercalary month.
c. Employed in or relating to travel to or from the moon or on its surface; lunar (excursion) module, a module designed to take an astronaut from an orbiting spacecraft to the moon's surface and back (abbrev. LM, LEM (L 7)).
1962Daily Tel. 17 July 17/6 If anything should go wrong with the lunar space-craft and the astronauts found themselves unable to take off, from the moon, unmanned supply vehicles would be sent. 1962New Scientist 19 July 123 At a hundred miles or so from the lunar surface retro-rockets will slow the craft into a lunar orbit. It will then be split in two, to form a mother craft and a lunar excursion module. 1965Punch 20 Jan. 84/1 The great Apollo ‘lunar project’ by which the Americans, bless them, still hope to land a man, alive, on the Moon in 1970. 1966Electronics 3 Oct. 134 The Lunar Excursion Module of the Apollo program has to descend safely as well as take off and rendezvous with the command module for the long trip home. 1967Technology Week 20 Feb. 16 (caption) Full-size mockup of Apollo Telescope Mount..is based on Apollo Lunar Module and is being used for placement of instruments. 1969Daily Mail 14 Jan. 5/2 We were to test the lunar module, the vehicle which will land on the Moon, in a high Earth orbit. 1970N. Armstrong et al. First on Moon i. 20 By 1962..the future programs were well designed and the lunar mission was going to become a reality. 1971New Scientist 3 June 574/1 Special wire mesh wheels have been built for America's Lunar Roving Vehicle which..is to drive around the lunar surface during the Apollo 15 mission in July. 1972Daily Tel. 24 Apr. 1/4 They climbed into the lunar rover to drive 3·3 miles to North Ray Crater. 1975S. Johnson Urbane Guerilla v. 181 Neil Armstrong at last stepped down from the lunar module Eagle on to lunar soil.
2. Transferred and figurative uses.
a. Monthly, menstrual. rare.
1683Tryon Way to Health 630 In the time of Pregnancy, or her Lunar visits. 1822Good Study Med. IV. 64 The cessation of her lunar discharge.
b. Having the character of the moon as opposed to that of the sun; not warmly bright; pale, pallid.
1742Young Nt. Th. iii. 56 A theme so like thee, a quite lunar theme, Soft, modest, melancholy, female, fair. 1864Spectator 425 Which we might call lunar poetry,—poetry without brilliancy, passion, or warmth, but yet containing glimpses of a pale but true beauty. 1902Swinburne in Q. Rev. July 26 Even the lustre of Partridge [in Tom Jones] is pallid and lunar beside the noontide glory of Micawber.
c. lunar politics: used allusively for ‘matters of no practical concern’.
1868Huxley Lay Serm. vii. (1870) 159 Hume's strong and subtle intellect takes up a great many problems about which we are naturally curious, and shows us that they are essentially questions of lunar politics, in their essence incapable of being answered.
3. Crescent-shaped, lunate. lunar bone (= medical L. os lunare): = B 3. Also, marked with crescent-shaped spots, as lunar underwing.
1635J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Banish'd Virg. 179 The Dwellings spreading..from one point of the Heaven to the other in a lunar forme. 1693Dryden Iphis & Ianthe Poet. Wks. (Aldine ed.) IV. 186 The lunar horns, that bind The brows of Isis. 1703Pope Thebais 864 Who grasps the struggling heifer's lunar horns. 1759W. Wilkie Epigon. ii. (1769) 22 Each with a faulchion armed and lunar shield. 1843Westwood Brit. Moths I. 133 Orthosia lunosa (the lunar under wing). 1845Ibid. II. 10 Geometra lunaria (the lunar thorn). 1863Reeve Land & Freshw. Mollusks 50 Aperture broadly obliquely lunar. 1887E. D. Cope Orig. Fittest vii. 264 The separation of the scaphoid and lunar bones.
4. Of or containing silver (see luna 2 a). lunar caustic, nitrate of silver fused.
1800Asiat. Ann. Reg., Misc. Tr. 331/2 The little success attending the use of the lunar caustic in these experiments. 1822Good Study Med. I. 313 The lunar pill of Boerhaave, formed from a preparation of silver, which may be regarded as a mild lunar caustic. 1826Ottley Dict. Chem., Silver, Nitrate of; formerly called Lunar Nitre, Lunar Crystals, or Crystals of Silver, and when fused Lunar Caustic. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 789 The cornea of both eyes was touched with a point of lunar caustic.
5. In Arabic grammar: The epithet of the class of consonants before which the l of the article is not assimilated; so called because including q, the initial of qamar moon. Opposed to solar.
1776J. Richardson Arab. Gram. iii. 8 The dentals and linguals are called solar letters, the rest lunar.
6. Comb.: lunar-diurnal a., pertaining to the lunar day; lunar-magnetic a., pertaining to magnetism as affected by the moon's position.
1856Sabine in Phil. Trans. CXLVI. 499 The Lunar⁓diurnal Variations of the Inclination..at that Station. 1862Bache Discuss. Magn. & Meteorol. Observ. iii. 11 The lunar-magnetic interval for the Philadelphia station.
B. n.
†1. A moon-like body, satellite. Obs.
1651R. Child in Hartlib's Legacy (1655) 161 Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, have their Lunars or small Stars moving about them.
2. a. A lunar distance; a lunar observation.
1830Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil. 28 We steered towards Rio de Janeiro for some days after taking the lunars above described. 1875Bedford Sailor's Pocket Bk. v. (ed. 2) 194 In taking Lunars, stars lying at about equal distances, east and west of the moon, should be chosen.
b. colloq. A look.
1906Galsworthy Man of Property i. 21 Now and then he would level his umbrella and take a ‘lunar’, as he expressed it, of the varying heights. 1938N. Marsh Artists in Crime v. 65 Let us take what used to be called a ‘lunar’ at the case. 1950‘J. Guthrie’ Is this what I Wanted? iii. 71 Charles took a lunar.
3. A bone of the wrist, shaped like a half-moon. Also in Latin form lunare |l(j)uːˈnɛəriː|.
1854R. Owen in Circ. Sci. (c 1865) II. 88/1 The carpal bones, answering to the scaphoid and lunar in the human wrist, are..confluent. 1872Mivart Elem. Anat. 169 The scaphoid coalesces with the lunare in the Carnivora. |