planet
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈplænɪt/
note: General Australian, weak vowel merger
ipa: /ˈplænət/
rhymes: -ænɪt
Forms: form: planets
Etymology: From Middle English planete, from Old French planete, from Latin planeta, planetes, from Ancient Greek πλανήτης (planḗtēs, “wanderer”) (itself an ellipsis of ἀστέρες πλανῆται (astéres planêtai, “wandering stars”)), from Ancient Greek πλανάω (planáō, “wander about, stray”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Latin pālor (“wander about, stray”), Old Norse flana (“to rush about”), and Norwegian flanta (“to wander about”). More at flaunt. So called because they have apparent motion, unlike the "fixed" stars. Originally including also the moon and sun but not the Earth; modern scientific sense of "world that orbits a star" is from 1630s in English. The Greek word is an enlarged form of πλάνης (plánēs, “who wanders around, wanderer”), also "wandering star, planet", in medicine "unstable temperature."
Senses: examples: text: Be they not dreames of humane vanity,[…]to make of our knowne earth a bright shining planet [translating astre]?
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 260:
text: The moon[…]began to rise from her bed, where she had slumbered away the day, in order to sit up all night. Jones had not travelled far before he paid his compliments to that beautiful planet, and, turning to his companion, asked him if he had ever beheld so delicious an evening?
ref: 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 288:
text: Another of Boehme's followers, the Welshman Morgan Llwyd, also believed that the seven planets could be found within man.
ref: 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 361:
topics: astrology
human-sciences
mysticism
philosophy
sciences
glosses: Each of the seven major bodies which move relative to the fixed stars in the night sky—the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
examples: text: A Discovrse concerning a New Planet. Tending to prove, That 'tis probable our Earth is one of the Planets
ref: 1640, John Wilkins, A Discovrse concerning a New Planet. Tending to prove, That 'tis probable our Earth is one of the Planets, title:
topics: astronomy
natural-sciences
synonyms: wandering star
wanderstar
glosses: Any body that orbits the Sun, including the asteroids (as minor planets) and sometimes the moons of those bodies (as satellite planets)
examples: text: Their decision will force a rewrite of science textbooks because the solar system is now a place with eight planets and three newly defined "dwarf planets"—a new category of object that includes Pluto.
ref: 2006 December 22, Alok Jha, The Guardian:
ref: 2009 December 1, Keiichi Wada, Yusuke Tsukamoto, Eiichiro Kokubo, “Planet Formation around Supermassive Black Holes in the Active Galactic Nuclei”, in The Astrophysical Journal, volume 886, number 2, article 107:
text: The closest planet takes just over nine Earth days to complete an orbit around the star, and the most distant takes about 55 days. All of the planets have quicker revolutions around their star than Mercury, which takes 88 days to complete one lap around the sun.
ref: 2023 November 29, Ashley Strickland, “Astronomers discover nearby six-planet solar system with ‘pristine configuration’”, in CNN:
topics: astronomy
natural-sciences
synonyms: world
hypernyms: planemo
coordinate_terms: brown dwarf
sub-brown dwarf
qualifier: current
glosses: A body which is massive enough to be in hydrostatic equilibrium (generally resulting in being an ellipsoid) but not enough to attain nuclear fusion and, in IAU usage, which directly orbits a star (or multiple star) and dominates the region of its orbit; specifically, in the case of the Solar system, the eight major bodies of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
examples: text: "My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects;[…]."
ref: 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
text: It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]:[…]; perhaps to moralise on the oneness or fragility of the planet, or to see humanity for the small and circumscribed thing that it is;[…].
ref: 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
glosses: construed with the or this: The Earth.
Synonyms: word: planet
Hypernyms: word: planemo
word: celestial body
Hyponyms: word: chthonian planet
word: dwarf planet
word: exoplanet
word: exosolar planet
word: gas giant
word: Georgian planet
word: Goldilocks planet
word: ham planet
word: home planet
word: ice giant
word: ice giant planet
word: ice planet
word: Jovian planet
word: malefic planet
word: mean planet
word: minor planet
word: Neptunian planet
word: ocean planet
word: panthalassic planet
word: protoplanet
word: rocky planet
word: ruling planet
word: telluric planet
word: terrestrial planet
word: tertiary planet
word: transitional planet
word: Trojan planet
word: giant planet
word: major planet
word: silicate planet
word: silicon planet
word: carbide planet
word: carbon planet
word: mesoplanet
word: superplanet
word: super-Earth
word: inner planet
word: outer planet
Derived terms: antiplanet
aquaplanet
blanet
deplanetize
gas giant planet
homeplanet
interplanetary
multiplanet
nonplanet
on what planet
planetal
planetality
planetar
planetarium
planetary
planetbound
planetcide
planetdom
planeted
planeteer
planetesimal
planetfall
planetful
planet gear
planethood
planet-hunting
planetical
planetless
planetlike
planetographer
planetography
planetoid
planetologist
planetology
planetophysics
planet placement
planetquake
planetrise
planetscape
planetship
planetside
planet-sized
planet-stricken
planetward
planetwards
planet wheel
planetwide
ploonet
psychroplanet
quasi-planet
secondary planet
sister planet
sun and planet gear
sword and planet
there is no Planet B
thermoplanet
Urinal of the Planets
Related terms: planetary body
planetary-mass object
planetary object
planet-ruler
planet-struck
moon
orbit