galacticadj.
/ɡəˈlaktɪk/, U.S. /ɡəˈlæktɪk/ I. In sense ‘lactic’.
1. galactic acid n. Chemistry (now rare) = lactic acid at lactic adj.
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the world > matter > chemistry > organic chemistry > acids obtained from animals > [noun] > in milk
galactic acid1788
lactic acid1789
paralactic acid1864
thebolactic acid1874
orotic acid1905
1788 W. Nicholson tr. A.-F. de Fourcroy Elements Nat. Hist. & Chem. IV. 304 The acid which is formed in milk..has been examined by Mr Scheele, and is called the galactic acid by M. de Morveau.
1803 W. B. Johnson Hist. Progress & Present State Animal Chem. II. 70 According to Morveau,..the galactic acid, as he calls it, is the product of the acetous fermentation.
1862 H. Watts tr. L. Gmelin Hand-bk. Chem. XV. 222 If the cupric oxide is in excess, the milk-sugar is converted into galactic acid.
1932 H. Pringsheim Chem. Monosaccharides & Polysaccharides xiv. 249 The distiller..has introduced the time- and sugar-consuming galactic acid fermentation.
2008 Corrosion Sci. 50 2239/1 One of the problems in using ETA [= ethanolamine] in turbines is the formation of organic acids, such as acetic acid, formic acid, and galactic acid, due to the thermal decomposition.
II. Of or relating to a galaxy.
2. Astronomy. Of or relating to the Milky Way or the galaxy of which it is the visible part. Also: of or relating to any galaxy, or galaxies in general.In earliest use poetic.
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the world > the universe > constellation > galaxy > [adjective]
irregular1811
galactic1834
supergiant1930
peculiar1936
the world > the universe > constellation > galaxy > [adjective] > Milky Way
galactic1834
1834 H. Busk Lay of Life 33 Let them steer..Athwart Galactic, Magellanic cloud To that new fashioned Orb.
1845 P. J. Bailey Festus (ed. 2) 220 Her eye grew darker, and her brow Brighter with thought, as with galactic light Mid heaven when clearest.
1849 J. F. W. Herschel Outl. Astron. xv. 535 The law of the visible distribution of stars over the southern galactic hemisphere.
1899 W. H. S. Monck Introd. Stellar Astron. iv. 77 Whether all known stars constitute a single system, or whether there are at least two classes—galactic and extra-galactic.
1953 G. O. Smith in Startling Stories Feb. 13/1 We found this rift after years of hard work and galactic surveying and exploring.
1961 J. Singh Ideas Mod. Cosmol. vii. 96 Space curvature leaves its fingerprint on the pattern of galactic distribution in depth over the sky.
1988 J. D. Barrow & F. J. Tipler Anthropic Cosmol. Princ. (rev. ed.) v. 349 This process..enables a small black hole to grow rapidly to the size envisaged for a galactic nucleus by Lynden-Bell.
1992 S. P. Maran Astron. & Astrophysics Encycl. 445/2 A spherical halo around the Galaxy..that may extend out as far as 100 kpc and comprise 90% of the galactic mass.
2004 I. M. Banks Algebraist (2005) i. 39 The crack troops and personal guards of the new galactic masters.
3. In extended use.
a. Illustrious; featuring many celebrities. Cf. galaxy n. 2.
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the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > reputation > fame or renown > famous or eminent person > [adjective]
mereeOE
athelOE
couthOE
brightOE
namecundc1175
outnumenc1175
noble?c1225
ketec1275
sheenc1275
tirfulc1275
glorious13..
losedc1305
of great renownc1330
glorifieda1340
worthly or worthy in wonea1350
clearc1374
nameda1382
solemna1387
renomeda1393
famous?a1400
renomé?a1400
renowneda1400
notedc1400
of (great, high, etc.) name?c1430
celebrate?1440
namely1440
famosec1449
honourable?c1450
notedc1450
parent?c1450
glorificatec1460
heroical?a1475
insignite?a1475
magnific1490
well-fameda1492
exemie1497
singular1497
preclare1503
magnificential1506
laureate1508
illustre?a1513
illustred1512
magnificent1513
preclared1530
grand1542
celebrated1549
heroicc1550
lustrantc1550
magnifical1557
illustrate1562
expectablec1565
ennobled1571
laurel1579
nominated1581
famosed1582
perspicuous1582
big1587
famed1595
uplifted1596
illustrious1598
celebrousc1600
luculent1600
celebrious1604
fameful1605
famoused1606
renownful1606
bruitful1609
eminent1611
insignious1620
clarousa1636
far-fameda1640
top1647
grandee1648
signalized1652
noscible1653
splendid1660
voiced1661
gloried1671
laurelled1683
distinguished1714
distinct1756
lustrious1769
trumpeted1775
spiry1825
world-famous1832
galactic1902
tycoonish1958
mega1987
1902 R. DeW. Mallary Lenox & Berks. Highlands 309 Only a little less galactic than these are the names of West, the minister of Stockbridge for fifty-nine years,..and Catlin.
1942 Observer 18 Oct. 2/2 There is something almost greedily galactic about the assemblage of stars for the revival of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ at the Phoenix.
1985 Newsweek (U.S. ed.) (Nexis) 11 Feb. 51 Even by Hollywood standards, it was a galactic gathering... In all, 43 of the biggest names in American pop music assembled in Los Angeles.
2006 Hindu 22 Sept. 1 Jothi opened shop here as director..with a galactic cast.
b. Vast, enormous; hugely significant.
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the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > [adjective] > vast, immense, or huge
un-i-fohOE
ormeteOE
hugea1275
un-i-feiec1275
infinitec1385
ponderousa1400
hugeful1413
hugyc1420
thrice1470
felon?a1500
hugeousa1529
enormous1544
enormc1560
fell1586
prodigious1601
immensive1604
colossic1607
monumental1632
vast1637
unfathomed1659
colossal1664
ponderose1680
heroic1785
colossian1794
pyramidal1849
astronomical1871
astronomic1923
stratospheric1932
cosmic1935
ginormous1942
galactic1960
mega1968
humongous1970
1960 Jrnl. Counseling Psychol. 7 312 The curious thing is that relatively few persons seem to recognize the galactic scope of his notions. The reason for this is probably Cattell himself.
1974 Bks. Abroad 48 380/1 Oversteegen, for example, manages to elevate Hella Haasse's writings into an oeuvre of galactic proportions.
1985 Newsweek (Nexis) 18 Mar. 37 The lady has no interest in the false prosperity that comes from deficit spending on a galactic scale.
2005 Wall St. Jrnl. 18 Mar. (Central ed.) a12/3 Some years later Brinkley defected to ABC, a galactic event whose only possible comparison would be George W. Bush defecting to the Democrats.
Compounds
In sense 2.
galactic belt n. the Milky Way.
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1878 S. Newcomb Pop. Astron. iv. 417 Telescopic stars..are least numerous in the regions most distant from the galactic belt.
1931 Science 28 Aug. 209/1 Several thousand photographs have been taken. The whole of the galactic belt is covered systematically.
1990 Chinese Astron. & Astrophysics 14 289 To use two-colour..photographic photometry in a search for red excess objects in the galactic belt.
galactic bulge n. = bulge n. Additions; spec. that of the galaxy to which the solar system belongs.
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1934 Sci. Monthly Aug. 131/2 It may not be true that the rounded bulge of obscuration about the position of the center [of our galactic system] marks a dark kernel of our system.]
1947 Astrophysical Jrnl. 106 238 A good sample of the central region of our galaxy is the great star cloud in Sagittarius, which W. Baade has shown to be almost certainly the outer portion of the galactic bulge.
1993 Sci. News 144 311/2 The finding may force astronomers to revise the standard model of how and when galactic bulges make stars.
galactic cannibalism n. the process by which a galaxy attracts matter from a neighbouring galaxy by gravitation, growing at its expense.
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1978 J. M. Pasachoff & M. L. Kutner University Astron. xxvi. 660 Galactic cannibalism, in which one member of a cluster assimilates other members, might be causing some galaxies to grow brighter.
1989 J. Silk Big Bang (rev. ed.) x. 213 (caption) Arp 315..is an elliptical pair in intimate contact, perhaps on the threshold of the final stages of galactic cannibalism.
2006 M. S. Longair Cosmic Cent. x. 194 The process of galactic cannibalism seems to provide an explanation of the origin of the huge giant elliptical galaxies..at the centre of many of the richest clusters of galaxies.
galactic centre n. the central point or zone of the galaxy.
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1876 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 363 (heading) The direction from our own position to the galactic centre or to the centre of gravity of our sidereal system.
1918 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 4 229 The motion of the cluster as a whole is in the galactic plane, nearly radial from the galactic center.
2003 J. Scalzi Rough Guide to Universe xiii. 186 The stars and clusters in the galaxy proper have mostly regular, near-circular orbits around the galactic centre.
galactic circle n. the central line or zone of the Milky Way across the sky; spec. = galactic equator n.
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1847 J. F. W. Herschel Results Astron. Observ. iv. 379 The poles of the great circle marking on a celestial globe the medial line of the Milky Way, which may be called the Galactic circle, were found, and their places ascertained.
1930 J. H. Jeans Universe around Us (ed. 2) i. 23 The Milky Way..is found to be only part of a full circle of light—the galactic circle—which stretches completely round the earth and divides the sky into two equal halves, forming a sort of celestial ‘equator’.
1992 Amer. Jrnl. Archaeol. 96 273/1 Several ancient commentators..held that the galactic circle originated from the milk of a divine mother.
galactic cluster n. (a) the cluster of stars including the sun and the Milky Way (now disused); (b) = open cluster n. at open adj. Compounds 3; (c) a cluster of galaxies.
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1875 Academy 10 Apr. 375/3 Mr. Peirce..has made some inferences with regard to the form of the galactic cluster.
1891 C. A. Young Lessons Astron. xii. 283 Herschel..drew from his observations certain untenable conclusions as to the form and structure of the ‘galactic cluster’, to which the sun was supposed to belong.
1918 H. Shapley in Contrib. Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory 8 226 Suppose we consider the compactly organized galactic cluster Messier 11, which is deeply immersed in the rich star clouds of the Milky Way.
1978 J. M. Pasachoff & M. L. Kutner University Astron. xxiii. 570 Studies of their Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams..show that galactic clusters are relatively young compared to globular clusters.
1990 Sciences July–Aug. 11/2 Is it the plasma currents, ‘blowing’ the stars..into patterns of galaxies, and the galaxies into galactic clusters?
1999 N.Y. Times 26 Jan. d1/5 The ‘Great Wall’, a vast sheet of connecting galaxies and galactic clusters mapped in 1989.
galactic concentration n. a tendency for stars (or other celestial objects) to occur in greater abundance closer to the galactic equator.
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1913 A. S. Eddington in Observatory 36 470 The stars used..are much the same as those that appeared in the previous table of galactic concentration.
1955 Proc. Royal Soc. A. 230 449 If the analysis is restricted to the twenty most intense sources, there is evidence for galactic concentration over a limited range of longitudes.
1994 Astrophysical Jrnl. 427 857 All 2298 objects appear to have strong galactic concentration.
galactic coordinate n. either of a pair of coordinates comprising respectively galactic latitude and longitude.
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1872 Monthly Notices Royal Astron. Soc. 33 5 The pole of the system of galactic co-ordinates, I have assumed to be in RA 190°, and Decl. 60° for the equinox of 1880.
1965 J. B. Sykes tr. K. F. Ogorodnikov Dynamics Stellar Syst. i. 25 The choice of any particular coordinate system is a matter of convenience. In stellar astronomy the most frequently used is that of galactic coordinates, defined by the galactic equator and the galactic poles.
1992 S. P. Maran Astron. & Astrophysics Encycl. 44/1 Figure 2 is plotted in galactic coordinates and the strip across the center of the map is the microwave emission from our own Milky Way.
galactic disc n. (originally) the disc of the galaxy, as represented in the sky by the Milky Way; (later also) the relatively thin, disc-shaped outer part of any spiral galaxy.
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1867 J. Ennis Origin of Stars xxxv. 302 This last class of objects is like our own sidereal system, consisting of an annulus, or ring of the Milky Way, and a stratum or disk of stars stretching across the whole interior of the ring.]
1869 Eclectic Mag. Nov. 564/1 Now I can see no reason for anticipating that any association should exist between the position of a system of universes, and the position of the galactic disc which is assumed to be a member of that system.
1910 Theosophist Sept. 1613 It is easy to show that the total number of stars in the galactic disc is roughly about ten thousand millions.
2005 M. J. Rees in R. Wielebinski & R. Beck Cosmic Magn. Fields 7 There are clearly strong interrelations between fields in stars, in..radio galaxies, and in galactic discs.
galactic equator n. a great circle of the sky passing as nearly as possible through the middle of the Milky Way.
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1848 Monthly Notices Royal Astron. Soc. 1847–8 8 93 It is possible..to infer the algebraical law of the density of stars in space at any distance from the galactic equator which is less than the reach of Herschel's telescope.
1930 R. H. Baker Astron. xi. 442 The galactic equator is the great circle halfway between the galactic poles.
1999 Sky & Telescope Mar. 135 (caption) The galactic equator in the northwest Monoceros provides a rich hunting ground for deep-sky observers and astrophotographers.
galactic halo n. a roughly spheroidal part of many spiral galaxies that surrounds the disc and the bulge and is more diffuse, containing stars that are older; spec. that of the galaxy to which the solar system belongs, which contains stars and globular clusters.
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1938 Science 24 June 10/2 Our galaxy actually is surrounded by a thinly-populated spherical aura or halo of stars.]
1956 Astrophysical Jrnl. 123 492 A distribution [of radio sources] away from the galactic plane and almost uniformly around the galactic center in a sphere of a radius of the order of 10 kpc (the ‘galactic halo’).
1990 J. Gribbin & M. Rees Cosmic Coincidences viii. 219 The situation is complicated if the quasar light passes through several galactic haloes and has the chance to be lensed several times on its way to us.
2007 Nature 5 July 29/1 The oldest stars in our Galaxy lie in the galactic halo, the spherical ‘cloud’ of thinly scattered globular clusters and old stars surrounding it.
galactic latitude n. the latitude of a point on the sky measured from the galactic equator.
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1853 D. Lardner Hand-bk. Nat. Philos. & Astron. III. ii. xxviii. 792 We shall, therefore, express the distance of different points of the firmament from the galactic circle, in either hemisphere, by the terms north or south galactic latitude.
1906 Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1905 260 Mean values were computed for different galactic latitudes by combining the results of regions at equal distances from the Milky Way.
1992 S. P. Maran Astron. & Astrophysics Encycl. 479/1 Reflection nebulosity is seen when dust at high galactic latitudes reflects the light of our galaxy.
galactic longitude n. the longitude of a point on the sky measured from a reference point on the galactic equator, usually defined either by the direction of the centre of the galaxy or by the intersection of the galactic and celestial equators.
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1872 Monthly Notices Royal Astron. Soc. 33 5 The galactic longitudes and polar distances have then been computed independently for every star in the list.
1926 Encycl. Brit. I. 252/1 In plan the system is elongated with its axis in galactic longitude 325°.
2004 M. Inglis Astron. of Milky Way 218 The zero point of galactic longitude is in the direction of the galactic center.
galactic nucleus n. the central part of a galaxy; spec. that of the Milky Way galaxy; cf. nucleus n. 1c.The nuclei of most large galaxies are now believed to contain a supermassive black hole.
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1928 H. Shapley & H. H. Swope in Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 14 833 A massive galactic nucleus is indicated, at a distance of nearly fifty thousand light years.
1974 F. W. Cole Fund. Astron. xiii. 344/1 Population II [stars exist as] the metal-poor stars found in globular clusters, as isolated stars in the galactic halo, and in the central galactic nucleus.
2003 Sci. Amer. July 28/1 In many galaxies where black holes devour material greedily—generating a phenomenon that astronomers call an active galactic nucleus (AGN)—stars form at a precipitous rate.
galactic plane n. the plane defined by the galactic equator.
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1849 J. F. W. Herschel Outl. Astron. xv. 534 The following table, expressing the densities of the stars at the respective distances, 1, 2, 3, &c., from the galactic plane.
1930 J. H. Jeans Universe around Us (ed. 2) iv. 216 Groups of stars of the type generally described as moving clusters..are generally found to move in the galactic plane.
2000 Nature 23 Mar. 344/3 The Gould belt—a large expanding disk or ring of young stars and gas..—is unexpectedly inclined at roughly 20° to the Galactic plane.
galactic pole n. either of the two opposite points of the sky situated at 90 degrees north and south of the galactic equator.
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1848 Edinb. Rev. July 119 A point..which is from 20° to 25° distant from the south Galactic Pole.
1933 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 19 599 The nebulae are most numerous near the galactic poles, and at any longitude they decrease toward the equator.
1991 C. A. Ronan Nat. Hist. Universe 56 (caption) The celestial north and south poles, to which the Earth's axis points, are tilted away from the galactic poles.
galactic system n. (a) the system of galactic coordinates; (b) the galaxy that contains the solar system and whose plane of maximum star density gives rise to the observed Milky Way.
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1854 E. Willard Astronography xxiv. 262 The fourth Spherical System..may be called the Galactic System, from its Great Circle, the Galaxy or Milky Way.
1869 Proc. Royal Soc. 18 170 We seem compelled to look upon the stars which exhibit such community of motion as forming a distinct system, the members of which are associated indeed with the galactic system, but are much more intimately related to each other.
1936 E. Hubble Realm of Nebulæ vi. 125 The galactic system is a member of a typical, small group of nebulæ which is isolated in the general field.
1992 S. P. Maran Astron. & Astrophysics Encycl. 132/2 In the galactic system..the primary circle is the plane of our galaxy and the reference point is in the direction of the galactic center.
galactic wind n. an outward flow of hot gas from a galaxy following an event such as a period of star formation or the outburst of a supernova.
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1964 L. Del Rey Mysterious Sky xiv. 138 So far, the evidence for the existence of such a ‘galactic wind’ is not conclusive.
2001 F. Matteucci Chem. Evol. Galaxy (2003) iv. 142 Supernova-driven galactic wind models..seem to reproduce well the chemical and photometric properties of elliptical galaxies.
galactic zone n. now rare = galactic belt n.
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1851 E. C. Otté tr. A. von Humboldt Cosmos III. iii. 195 Huygens..declared, as early as the year 1656, that the milky whiteness of the whole Galactic zone was not to be ascribed to irresolvable nebulosity.
1890 A. M. Clerke Syst. Stars xxiii. 355 The bright spaces of the galactic zone are commonly surrounded and set off by dark winding channels.
1936 Science 6 Nov. 421/2 It suggests the existence of extended nebulous regions over large parts of the galactic zone.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1788