Category:Moon

Moon In other languages, the word for moon is: Indonesian: bulan Javanese: wulan Tetun: fulan Tagalog: buwan Hiligaynon: bulan Fijian: vula Malagasy: volana

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 * Although the moon appears larger when seen near the horizon, it is an optical illusion, and is the same distance from the earth.



Moon, n. Etym: [OE. mone, AS. mona; akin to D. maan, OS. & OHG. mano, G. mond, Icel. mani, Dan. maane, Sw. måne, Goth. mena, Lith. men, L. mensis month, Gr. mas moon, month; prob. from a root meaning to measure (cf. Skr. ma to measure), from its serving to measure the time. *271. Cf. Mete to measure, Menses, Monday, Month.]

1. The celestial orb which revolves round the earth; the satellite of the earth; a secondary planet, whose light, borrowed from the sun, is reflected to the earth, and serves to dispel the darkness of night. The diameter of the moon is 2,160 miles, its mean distance from the earth is 240,000 miles, and its mass is one eightieth that of the earth. See Lunar month, under Month. The crescent moon, the diadem of night. Cowper.

2. A secondary planet, or satellite, revolving about any member of the solar system; as, the moons of Jupiter or Saturn.

3. The time occupied by the moon in making one revolution in her orbit; a month. Shak.

4. (Fort.)

Defn: A crescentlike outwork. See Half-moon. Moon blindness. (a) (Far.) A kind of ophthalmia liable to recur at intervals of three or four weeks. (b) (Med.) Hemeralopia. -- Moon dial, a dial used to indicate time by moonlight. -- Moon face, a round face like a full moon. -- Moon madness, lunacy. [Poetic] -- Moon month, a lunar month. -- Moon trefoil (Bot.), a shrubby species of medic (Medicago arborea). See Medic. -- Moon year, a lunar year, consisting of lunar months, being sometimes twelve and sometimes thirteen.

moon Moon, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mooned; p. pr. & vb. n. Mooning.]

Defn: To expose to the rays of the moon. If they have it to be exceeding white indeed, they seethe it yet once more, after it hath been thus sunned and mooned. Holland.

moon Moon, v. i.

Defn: To act if moonstruck; to wander or gaze about in an abstracted manner. Elsley was mooning down the river by himself. C. Kingsley.

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---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Moon - Heb. yareah, from its paleness (Ezra 6:15), and lebanah, the "white" (Song of Songs 6:10; Isaiah 24:23), was appointed by the Creator to be with the sun "for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years" (Genesis 1:14). A lunation was among the Jews the period of a month, and several of their festivals were held on the day of the new moon. It is frequently referred to along with the sun (Joshua 10:12; Psalms 72:5, Psalms 72:7, Psalms 72:17; Psalms 89:36, Psalms 89:37; Ecclesiastes 12:2; Isaiah 24:23, etc.), and also by itself (Psalms 8:3; Psalms 121:6). The great brilliance of the moon in Eastern countries led to its being early an object of idolatrous worship (Deuteronomy 4:19; Deuteronomy 17:3; Job 31:26), a form of idolatry against which the Jews were warned (Deuteronomy 4:19; Deuteronomy 17:3). They, however, fell into this idolatry, and offered incense (2 Kings 23:5; Jeremiah 8:2), and also cakes of honey, to the moon (Jeremiah 7:18; Jeremiah 44:17, Jeremiah 44:25).