Sunday, December 22, 2013

Fwd: solstice: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dictionary.com <doctor@dictionary.com>
Date: 2013/12/21
Subject: solstice: Dictionary.com Word of the Day
To: "Hector William G." <hectorpinillos@gmail.com>

Word of the Day for Saturday, December 21, 2013

solstice \SOL-stis, SOHL-\, noun:

1. Astronomy. a. either of the two times a year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator: about June 21, when the sun reaches its northernmost point on the celestial sphere, or about December 22, when it reaches its southernmost point. Compare summer solstice, winter solstice. b. either of the two points in the ecliptic farthest from the equator.
2. a furthest or culminating point; a turning point.

...the Sun appears a second time to be in the Plane of the Equinoctial Circle, in its Passage from the Winter Solstice to the Summer Solstice...
-- John Shuttleworth, A Treatise of Astronomy, 1738

The era, a purely astronomical division of time, began with the coincidence of the December solstice with perihelion, and was renewed every 25,765 years.
-- Camille Flammarion, Omega: The Last Days of the World, 1894

Solstice comes from the Latin solstitium referring to when the sun stands still. It entered English in the 1200s.

Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word

Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help

Words of the Day? How about words of timeless wisdom?

Introducing our Quotes channel! "Life itself is a quotation." - Jorge Luis Borges
Check out the Quote of the Day ››

Who Invented the Crossword?

The English journalist Arthur Wynne is usually credited with inventing the crossword. His first puzzle, which was called a word cross, was published in 1913. But some people believe that the first crossword puzzle was actually published in an Italian magazine in the late nineteenth century. It was called per passare il tempo, which means "to...
Read more ››

Dictionary.com Word of the Day	You are subscribed to the Word of the Day as: hectorpinillos@gmail.com
Subscriber since: June 03, 2013 Unsubscribe from the Word of the Day	To subscribe to the Word of the Day by email, please send a blank message to: join-wordoftheday@lists.lexico.com
©2013 by Dictionary.com, LLC. 555 12th Street Suite 500 Oakland CA 94607	Subscriptions to the Word of the Day can also be managed online
	Tell a friend about the Word of the Day!