luna

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See also: Luna, lunã, lună, łuna, and łúna

English[edit]

WOTD – 28 December 2012

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from Latin lūna (“moon; month; crescent”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

luna (plural lunas)

  1. (entomology) A luna moth: a member of species Actias luna.
    • 1944, Elizabeth Enright, Then There Were Five,[1] Farrar & Rinehart, page 80:
      “Gee,” whispered Oliver. He sat there staring. “A luna! I never thought I’d see a real luna!”
    • 1969, Sterling North, “An Introduction to Butterflies and Moths”, in Boys’ Life, May 1969 issue, Boy Scouts of America, page 64:
      On the previous evening we had discovered with delight a luna with the fabulous moons, one on each pale green wing.
    • 2010, Sally Roth (contributor), in Judy Pray (compiler), Garden Wisdom & Know-How: Everything You Need to Know to Plant, Grow, and Harvest, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc., ISBN 978-1-57912-837-1, page 348:
      Spray BT on your young oak to protect against gypsy moths, and you wipe out future lunas, cecropias, and everything else on the leaves, along with the pests.
  2. (Christianity, chiefly Catholicism and Anglicanism) A lunette: a crescent-shaped receptacle, often glass, for holding the (consecrated) host (the bread of communion) upright when exposed in the monstrance. [from 19th c.][1]
    • 1907 May, “Dominicanus”, “The Rosary and the Blessed Sacrament”, in the Dominican Friars, The Rosary Magazine, Volume 30, Number 5, page 494:
      The Bread of Angels is first taken from the tabernacle, where it rests in the luna, and placed upon the altar, covered with a corporal. After genuflecting, the priest puts the luna containing the Blessed Sacrament on its throne—the monstrance—and elevates it […]
    • 1917, John F. Sullivan, The Externals of the Catholic Church, BiblioLife, LLC (2009), ISBN 9781113714084, pages 115–116:
      This receptacle is called a “luna” or “lunula” (a moon, or a little moon), and has glass on either side, so that the Host may be seen when enclosed therein. […][…] ¶ The ciborium, the pyx and luna of the ostensorium are blessed with a simpler formula than that used for the chalice, and […][…] ¶ The chalice, the paten, the luna and the pyx are sacred things, true sacramentals, and are worthy of deepest reverence; for […]
    • 2007, John Trigilio and Kenneth Brighenti, The Catholicism Answer Book: The 300 Most Frequently Asked Questions, Sourcebooks, Inc., ISBN 9781402208065, page 156:
      The luna, which is a piece of glass in the shape of a moon, contains the Blessed Sacrament, previously consecrated. The luna is then placed in the middle of the sunburst of the monstrance.
Synonyms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From the Hawaiian word luna (“leader; supervisor”).[2]

Noun[edit]

luna (plural luna or lunas)

  1. (Hawaii) A foreman on a plantation.
    • 1922, U. G. Murphy, “The Japanese Problem in Hawaii: How the Task of Christianizing and Americanizing the Oriental is Progressing”, in The Friend, Volume 91, Number 6 (June 1922) page 130:
      There are several reasons why the Hawaiian-born Japanese boys and girls do not take kindly to plantation labor, but one of the chief reasons is the objection to the kind of lunas who oversee the work of the laborers.
    • 1959, James Michener, Hawaii (novel),[2] Fawcett Crest (1986), ISBN 9780449213353, page 737:
      […] haoles could not visualize Chinese or Japanese in positions of authority. And from sad experience, the great plantation owners had discovered that the Americans they could get to serve as lunas were positively no good. Capable Americans expected office jobs and incapable ones were unable to control the Oriental […]
    • 2000, Sally Engle Merry, Colonizing Hawai'i: the cultural power of law, page 321:
      After the day was over I went to the luna to count my day but he would not. Then I went to him the second time and he said he would not put it down.
    • 2012, Julia Flynn Siler, Lost Kingdom, Grove Press, p. 35:
      Capital punishment was outlawed by the government but some plantation managers and luna still delivered lashings and other forms of abuse.

Usage notes[edit]

  • This noun, though inflected as an English word (singular luna, plural lunas), is frequently italicized as a loanword.

References[edit]

  1. ^ “luna” in Don S. Armentrout and Robert Boak Slocum (editors), An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church: A User-Friendly Reference for Episcopalians, Church Publishing, Inc. (2000), ISBN 978-0-89869-211-2.
  2. ^ 1986, Mary Kawena Pukui, Samuel H. Elbert, Hawaiian dictionary: Hawaiian-English, English-Hawaiian, revised and enlarged edition (University of Hawaii Press)

Anagrams[edit]

Czech[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Church Slavonic лоуна (luna), from Proto-Slavic *lunà, from Proto-Indo-European *lewk-. Cognates include Latin luna, Ancient Greek λύχνος (lúkhnos), Old Prussian lauxnos and Middle Irish luan.

Noun[edit]

luna f

  1. moon

Declension[edit]

Declension of luna
singular plural
nominative luna luny
genitive luny lun
dative luně lunám
accusative lunu luny
vocative luno luny
locative luně lunách
instrumental lunou lunami

Synonyms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Esperanto[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈluna/
  • Hyphenation: lu‧na

Adjective[edit]

luna (accusative singular lunan, plural lunaj, accusative plural lunajn)

  1. (astronomy) lunar

Interlingua[edit]

Noun[edit]

luna (plural lunas)

  1. moon

Italian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin lūna, from Old Latin losna, from Proto-Italic *louksnā, from Proto-Indo-European *lowksneh₂, derived from the root *lewk- (“bright”).
Cognates include: Armenian լուսին (lusin), Portuguese lua, Romanian lună, Russian луна́ (luná)

Jeff Fennell - Early Morning Moon (by).jpg
FullMoonHauknes.jpg

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈlu.na/, [ˈl̺uːn̺ä]
  • Rhymes: -una
  • audio
    		(file)
  • Stress: lùna
  • Hyphenation: lu‧na

Noun[edit]

luna f (plural lune)

Italian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia it
  1. the Moon
    • c. 13th century, Francis of Assisi, “Cantico di Frate Sole”, Biblioteca del Sacro Convento di San Francesco [3]:
      Laudato ſi mi ſignore ᵱ ſora luna e le ſtelle, in celu lai foꝛmate clarite ⁊ p̃tioſe ⁊ belle.
      Praised be you, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars; in heaven you have made them clear and precious and beautiful.
    • 1321, Dante Alighieri, “Inferno [Hell]”, in La divina commedia [The Divine Comedy][4] (in Italian), 1st edition, Foligno: Printed by Johannes Numeister and Evangelista Mei, published 1472, Canto VII, lines 64-66:
      che tutto l oro che ſotto la luna ¶ et che gia fu de queſte anime ſtanche ¶ none potrebbe farne poſar una
      « […] for all the gold that is beneath the moon, ¶ or ever has been, of these weary souls ¶ could never make a single one repose».
  2. (by extension) a planet's natural satellite; moon
  3. (archaic, literary, figuratively) a month, moon
    • 1321, Dante Alighieri; Umberto Bosco, Giovanni Reggio, La divina commedia: Inferno [The Divine Comedy: Hell][5] (in Italian), 12th edition, Firenze: Le Monnier, published 1994, ISBN 88-00-41218-1, Canto XXXIII, lines 22, 25-26, page 490:
      Breve pertugio dentro da la Muda, ¶ […] ¶ m'avea mostrato per lo suo forame ¶ più lune già, quand'io feci 'l mal sonno […]
      «A narrow perforation in the mew, ¶ […] ¶ had shown me through its opening ¶ many moons already, when I dreamed the evil dream […]
  4. (archaic, figuratively, by extension) a time of the year
  5. (alchemy) silver
  6. (heraldry) a full moon (as opposed to a crescent)

Related terms[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Latin[edit]

Latin Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia la
lūna (the Moon)

Alternative forms[edit]

  • Lūna (for the sense "the Moon")

Etymology[edit]

From Old Latin losna, from Proto-Italic *louksnā, from Proto-Indo-European *lowksneh₂, which is derived from Proto-Indo-European *lewk-.
Cognates include Old Church Slavonic лоуна (luna).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

lūna f (genitive lūnae); first declension

  1. the Moon
  2. (figuratively) a month
  3. (figuratively) a night
  4. a crescent shape

Inflection[edit]

First declension.

Case Singular Plural
nominative lūna lūnae
genitive lūnae lūnārum
dative lūnae lūnīs
accusative lūnam lūnās
ablative lūnā lūnīs
vocative lūna lūnae

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from luna

Descendants[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  • luna in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • luna in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • du Cange, Charles (1883), “luna”, in G. A. Louis Henschel, Pierre Carpentier, Léopold Favre, editors, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (in Latin), Niort: L. Favre
  • Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[6], London: Macmillan and Co.
    • the sun, moon, is eclipsed: sol (luna) deficit, obscuratur
    • the moon waxes, wanes: luna crescit; decrescit, senescit
  • luna in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • luna in William Smith, editor (1848) A Dictionary of Greek Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
  • luna in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
  • luna in Richard Stillwell et al., editor (1976) The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press

Neapolitan[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin lūna.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

luna f (please add the plural)

  1. moon

Occitan[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin lūna.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

luna f (plural lunas)

  1. moon

Polish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Slavic *lunà.

Noun[edit]

luna f

  1. (archaic) moon

Declension[edit]

declension of luna
singular plural
nominative luna luny
genitive luny lun
dative lunie lunom
accusative lunę luny
instrumental luną lunami
locative lunie lunach
vocative luno luny

Derived terms[edit]

Romanian[edit]

Noun[edit]

luna f

  1. definite singular nominative and accusative form of lună.

Serbo-Croatian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Slavic *lunà.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

luna f (Cyrillic spelling луна)

  1. (dated, now rare) moon

Synonyms[edit]

Sicilian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin lūna.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈluna/
  • Hyphenation: lù‧na

Noun[edit]

luna f (plural luni)

  1. moon

Derived terms[edit]

Slovak[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Slavic *lunà, from Proto-Indo-European *lowksneh₂, from *lewk-.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈluna/
  • Hyphenation: lu‧na

Noun[edit]

luna f (genitive singular luny, nominative plural luny, genitive plural lún, declension pattern of žena)

  1. (archaic, poetic) moon

Declension[edit]

Declension of luna
singular plural
nominative luna luny
genitive luny lún
dative lune lunám
accusative lunu luny
locative lune lunách
instrumental lunou lunami

Synonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • luna in Slovak dictionaries at korpus.sk

Slovene[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Slavic *lunà.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

lúna f (genitive lúne, nominative plural lúne)

  1. moon

Declension[edit]

Declension of lúna (feminine, a-stem)
singular dual plural
nominative lúna lúni lúne
accusative lúno lúni lúne
genitive lúne lún lún
dative lúni lúnama lúnam
locative lúni lúnah lúnah
instrumental lúno lúnama lúnami

Synonyms[edit]

See also[edit]

Spanish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin lūna, from Proto-Italic *louksnā, from Proto-Indo-European *lowksneh₂, which is derived from Proto-Indo-European *lewk-. Cognate with Galician lúa, Portuguese lua, Catalan lluna, French lune, Italian luna, Occitan luna and Romanian lună.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

luna f (plural lunas)

  1. moon

Derived terms[edit]

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