Word: lunar Part of Speech: adj Etymology: From Middle English lunar (“shaped like the crescent moon”), from Latin lūnāris (“of or pertaining to the moon, lunar”) (possibly through Middle French lunaire (modern French lunaire (“lunar”)), from lūna (“the Moon; crescent shape”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to shine”)) + -is (suffix forming adjectives). Pronunciation: /ˈl(j)uːnə/, /ˈlunɚ/ 1. Of, pertaining to, or resembling the Moon (that is, Luna, the Earth's moon). Labels: not-comparable Example: lunar observations a lunar eclipse Example: By two lunar obſervations the long[itude] was 9° 57′ 30″ E. agreeing within 37′ by the watch, though the day before the long. by moon and watch differed 2° 35′. 2. Shaped like a crescent moon; lunate. Labels: not-comparable Example: Her tears purſu'd her words, and while ſhe ſpoke / The Goddeſs nodded, and her altar ſhook: / The temple doors, as with a blaſt of wind, / Were heard to clap; the lunar horns that bind / The brows of Iſis caſt a blaze around; / The trembling timbrel made a murm'ring ſound. Example: The images therefore which Laban worſhipped were probably lunar amulets, or types of the ark in the form of a creſcent. 3. Extremely high. Labels: not-comparable Example: Julian wolfed down the rest of his dinner and when he accompanied Michelle back to her apartment his spirits were positively lunar. Example: Although Little Chandler hungers to “express the melancholy of his soul in verse,” to ascend out of the depths of his solitary confinement to the lunar heights of the poet, he can do no more than expand into a garrulous bully or shrink into an infant, always remaining his own inadequate self, like an inflatable ball that changes in size but never in substance. 4. (Believed to be) influenced by the Moon, as in character, growth, or properties. Labels: historical, not-comparable Example: Some of the Ancients, and likewiſe diuers of the Moderne VVriters, that haue laboured in Naturall Magick, have noted a Sympathy, between the Sunne, Moone, and ſome Principall Starres; And certaine Herbes, and Plants. And they haue denominated ſome Herbes Solar, and ſome Lunar; [...] 5. Of or pertaining to silver (which was symbolically associated with the Moon by alchemists). Labels: not-comparable, obsolete Example: On the Poison of Serpents. By W. Boag, Esq. [...] Supposing the fatal effect [of a snakebite] to be produced by the sudden subtraction of oxygen from the blood, this gentleman recommends, by way of antidote, the employment of those substances which contain oxygen in its greatest abundance, and part with it with the greatest facility; and, as lunar caustic [silver nitrate] possesses these properties in a singular degree, he concludes that no medicine is better calculated to resist the effects of the poison of serpents. Example: The association of the heavenly bodies with known metals and also with human organs and destinies goes back to ancient Chaldea, the land of astrologers. In Chaucer’s words: ‘The seven bodies eek, lo hear anon. Sol gold is, and Luna silver we declare; Mars yron, Mercurie is quyksilver; Saturnian leed; and Jubitur is tyn, and Venus coper, by my fathers kyn.’ […] Corresponding names were bestowed upon salts of these metals by the alchemists, and some of them have persisted down to the present day. Some examples are lunar caustic (silver nitrate); vitriol of Venus (copper sulphate); sugar of Saturn (lead acetate); and vitriol of Mars, or Martial vitriol (ferrous sulphate). 6. Of or pertaining to travel through space between the Earth and the Moon, or exploration and scientific investigation of the Moon. Labels: not-comparable Example: Several initial experimental firings of the various stages of Saturn V into earth orbit will precede the planned lunar flight. The astronauts will practice rendezvous techniques in the earth's orbit. [...] Before they reach the moon the astronauts will have another difficult maneuver to perform—turning their command module around so that its nose is attached to the top of the lunar excursion module. Two of the crew members will transfer from the command module to the lunar excursion module.