stardustn.
/ˈstɑːdʌst/, U.S. /ˈstɑrˌdəst/ 1. Astronomy. A body of stars likened, as seen through a telescope, to dust; (in early use) spec. a body of stars so distant that the individual stars forming it cannot be perceived with a telescope.
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the world > the universe > constellation > star-cluster > [noun]
cluster1728
star cluster1829
stardust1836
star cloud1839
moving cluster1908
supercluster1924
1836 Lit. Gaz. 10 Sept. 587/3 The writer [sc. J. Herschel] compared some of the nebulæ to star-dust.
1878 S. Newcomb Pop. Astron. iv. i. 443 Many of them [sc. these clusters] are so distant that the most powerful telescopes..show them only as a patch of star-dust.
1909 By Starlight & Moonlight i. 15 A little searching with your low-power eye-piece will soon be rewarded by the sparkle of its ‘star-dust’.
1978 R. Burnham Burnham's Celestial Handbk. (rev. ed.) II. 754 No more than 30X is required on a good 6-inch to show this superb pair as two contrasting jewels suspended against a background of glittering star-dust.
2011 M. Bratton Compl. Guide Herschel Objects 60 Casual sweeping with a telescope reveals field after field of faint stardust as well as numerous dark dust clouds blotting out the myriad stars beyond.
2. Small particles of matter and dust-like material found in space.
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the world > the universe > diffused matter > [noun] > cosmic dust
stardust1841
stardust1867
meteor dust1868
cosmic dust1876
1841 Common School Jrnl. 15 Apr. 116 This substance is called star-dust, and astronomers suppose it to be the material out of which stars are gradually formed.
1871 J. McCosh Christianity & Positivism i. 16 It is maintained that the worlds have been formed out of Star Dust. Now, I have to remark as to this star dust, first of all, that it is at best an hypothesis.
1926 Pop. Sci. Monthly Feb. 61/1 All of the planets, he [sc. Prof. W. D. MacMillan] explains, as they soar along in space, sweep up star dust.
1972 Ennis (Texas) Daily News 1 Sept. 8 We know that mankind was made out of star dust, forged in burning suns and born in a cataclysm.
2012 G. Walker Antarctica (2013) iv. 162 Not only are we all made of stardust, but we are made of the dust from different stars.
3. = meteor dust n. (b) at meteor n.1 and adj.1 Compounds 2. Now rare.
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the world > the universe > diffused matter > [noun] > cosmic dust
stardust1841
stardust1867
meteor dust1868
cosmic dust1876
1867 Monthly Packet Jan. 86 The great stream [of stars] came east and west, leaving long lines of powdery light, ‘star-dust,’ behind them, golden and crimson and a beautiful blue.
1879 A. Geikie Geol. Sketches (1882) xiii. 323 Mud gathers on the floor of these abysses [of the ocean]..so slowly that the very star-dust which falls from outer space forms an appreciable part of it.
1940 Pop. Sci. Monthly Jan. 107/1 How much star dust drops from the sky onto the earth every year? That's the problem being tackled by Harvey H. Nininger, Denver, Colo., meteorite expert.
4. figurative.
a. That which is illusory or insubstantial. to have stardust in one's eyes and variants: to have a false (favourable) impression of a person or thing, esp. as a result of being in love.
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the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > fancy or fantastic notion > deceptive fancy or illusion > [noun]
fantasyc1325
fairyc1330
illusionc1374
mazec1390
phantasma1398
dream1489
phantom1557
seeming1576
phantasma1598
fancy1609
hallucinationa1652
phantastry1656
phasm1659
fata Morgana1818
dreamland1832
stardust1906
1906 Altoona (Pa.) Mirror 10 Aug. 12/5 But the colony had been bartered away like a bauble, and the empire fell, shattered into star-dust.
1926 Kokomo (Indiana) Tribune 21 Sept. 10/4 It matters not at all what the outer coating may be, when there's star dust in her eyes, and lovelight in her face.
1934 V. Woolf Walter Sickert 20 His [sc. Sickert's] paint has a tangible quality; it is made not of air and star-dust but of oil and earth.
1975 A. Hunter Gently with Love xxii. 81 ‘You had a different opinion of her once.’.. ‘I must have had some stardust in my eyes.’
2005 G. Nero Warm Dust, Summer Rain xxiv. 392 Don't try to pry out of me something that's only stardust.
b. An imaginary substance supposed to impart a magical, beneficial quality; (hence) a magical quality, glamour. Now esp.: the glamour associated with celebrities, viewed as such a substance.
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1922 Washington Post 8 Apr. 8/8 Love is friendship sprinkled with star-dust.
1943 J. Rice Let. in S. J. Bugbee Officer & Lady (2004) 124 I shall dip my pen in star dust and write a tribute to her.
1947 S. J. Perelman Westward Ha! (1949) vii. 84 Since the ship was calling there anyway, the trip would be pure lagniappe, an extra dash of stardust unforeseen in our program.
1993 Down East Aug. 46/1 A gang of Hollywood stars and technicians could very well spend the summer in our midst, walking our streets,..entertaining us with their charm, anointing us with sparkling stardust.
2005 Vanity Fair Oct. 164/3 Both foreshadow the battered beanbag Truman Capote was to become after the stardust turned to cinders.
2015 Independent (Nexis) 26 Feb. 10 The British performers..were somewhat overshadowed by the stardust provided by a trio of American imports.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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