nebula

English

An emission nebula

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin nebula (“little cloud, mist”). Akin to Ancient Greek νεφέλη (nephélē, “cloud”), German Nebel (“mist, nebula”), Old Norse nifl, Polish niebo (“sky, heaven”), Russian не́бо (nébo, “sky”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: neb'jə-lə, IPA^(key): /ˈnɛbjʊlə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

nebula (plural nebulae or nebulas or (obsolete) nebulæ)

1. (astronomy) A cloud in outer space consisting of gas or dust (e.g. a cloud formed after a star explodes).
   • 2012, Chinle Miller, In Mesozoic Lands: The Mesozoic Geology of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Kindle edition:

     Approximately 5 billion years ago, our solar nebula was formed as gravitational forces pulled interstellar gas and dust into a swirling mass around out newly formed sun.

2. (archaic, medicine) A white spot or slight opacity of the cornea.
3. (obsolete, medicine) A cloudy appearance in the urine.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• dark nebula
• diffuse nebula
• emission nebula
• planetary nebula
• preplanetary nebula
• protoplanetary nebula
• reflection nebula
• solar nebula
• stellar nebula

Related terms

• nebulosity
• nebulous
• nebular

Translations

a space cloud

• Albanian: nebulozë (sq) f, mjegullnajë (sq) f
• Arabic: سَدِيم‎ m (sadīm)

  Egyptian Arabic: سديم‎ m (sadīm)

• Armenian: միգամածություն (hy) (migamacutʿyun)
• Azerbaijani: dumanlıq
• Basque: nebulosa (eu)
• Belarusian: тума́ннасць f (tumánnascʹ)
• Bengali: নীহারিকা (bn) (niharika)
• Bulgarian: мъглявина́ (bg) f (mǎgljaviná)
• Burmese: နက်ဗျူလာ (nakbyula)
• Catalan: nebulosa f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 星雲／星云 (sing¹ wan⁴)

  Mandarin: 星雲／星云 (zh) (xīngyún)

• Czech: mlhovina (cs) f
• Danish: stjernetåge c
• Dutch: nevelvlek (nl) f
• Esperanto: nebulozo
• Estonian: udukogu
• Faroese: stjørnutoka f
• Finnish: kaasusumu, tähtisumu (fi), nebula (fi)
• French: nébuleuse (fr)
• Galician: nebulosa (gl) f
• Georgian: ნისლეულები (nisleulebi), ნისლეული (nisleuli)
• German: Nebel (de) m, Wolke (de) f
• Greek: νεφέλωμα (el) n (neféloma)

  Ancient: νεφέλιον n (nephélion)

• Gujarati: નિહારિકા f (nihārikā), નેબ્યુલા (nebyulā)
• Hebrew: עַרְפִלִּית / ערפילית‎ (he) f (arpilit)
• Hindi: निहारिका (hi) f (nihārikā), नीहारिका (hi) f (nīhārikā), नॅब्युला (nĕbyulā)
• Hungarian: csillagköd (hu), nebula (hu)
• Icelandic: stjörnuþoka (is) f
• Ido: nebulozo (io)
• Indonesian: nebula (id)
• Interlingua: nebulosa
• Irish: réaltnéal m
• Italian: nebulosa (it) f
• Japanese: 星雲 (ja) (せいうん, seiun)
• Kannada: ನೀಹಾರಿಕೆ (kn) (nīhārike)
• Kazakh: тұмандық (tūmandyq)
• Khmer: នេប៊ូឡា (neibuulaa), ណេប៊ុយឡា (neebuylaa)
• Korean: 성운(星雲) (ko) (seong'un)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: nebuloz

• Kyrgyz: тумандуулук (tumanduuluk)
• Latin: nebula f
• Latvian: miglājs m
• Lithuanian: ū̃kas m
• Macedonian: маглина f (maglina)
• Malay: nebula
• Malayalam: നീഹാരിക (ml) (nīhārika)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: мананцар (mn) (manancar)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: stjernetåke m or f

• Persian: سحابی‎ (fa) (sahâbi), میغ‌واره‎ (miğ-vâre)
• Polish: mgławica (pl) f
• Portuguese: nebulosa (pt) f, nébula f
• Romanian: nebuloasă (ro) f
• Russian: тума́нность (ru) f (tumánnostʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ма̀глина f, ма̀глица f

  Roman: màglina (sh) f, màglica (sh) f

• Slovak: hmlovina f
• Slovene: meglíca f, nébula f
• Spanish: nebulosa (es) f
• Swedish: nebulosa (sv) c
• Tagalog: bigha, ulanag, nebula
• Tajik: меғвора (meġvora), туманот (tumanot)
• Tamil: நெபுலா (nepulā)
• Thai: เนบิวลา (th) (nee-biu-lâa)
• Turkish: nebula (tr)
• Turkmen: dumanlyk
• Ukrainian: тума́нність f (tumánnistʹ)
• Urdu: صَحابِیَہ‎ (sahābiya), سَدِیم‎ (sadīm)
• Uzbek: tumanlik (uz)
• Vietnamese: tinh vân (vi) (星雲)
• Volapük: silefog
• Welsh: nifiwl m

See also

• plerion
• nova remnant
• supernova remnant
• Herbig-Haro object
• Bok globule
• interstellar cloud
• intergalactic cloud
• high velocity cloud

Anagrams

• Buelna, Nabeul, unable, unbale

Interlingua

Noun

nebula (plural nebulas)

1. fog, mist, haze
2. (pathology) nebula

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin nebula. Doublet of nebbia, which was inherited.

Noun

nebula f (plural nebule)

1. (archaic) fog, mist; cloud
2. nebula

Related terms

• nebbia
• nebulizzare
• nebulosa

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *neβelā, from Proto-Indo-European *nébʰos (“cloud”). Cognate with Ancient Greek νέφος (néphos), νεφέλη (nephélē), Old High German nebul, Sanskrit नभस् (nábhas), Old Church Slavonic небо (nebo).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈne.bu.la/, [ˈnɛbʊɫ̪ä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈne.bu.la/, [ˈnɛːbulä]

Noun

nebula f (genitive nebulae); first declension

1. fog
2. cloud
3. vapor
4. nebula

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	nebula	nebulae
Genitive	nebulae	nebulārum
Dative	nebulae	nebulīs
Accusative	nebulam	nebulās
Ablative	nebulā	nebulīs
Vocative	nebula	nebulae

Synonyms

• cālīgō

Derived terms

• nebulōsus

Descendants

• Aromanian: negurã, negure
• Catalan: neula
• Old Francoprovençal: niola
  • Franco-Provençal: niola
• Old French: niule, neble
  • French: nieule or nieulle (dialectal), niolu, niolerie
• Galician: nebra
• Italian: nebbia
• Occitan: nèbla
• Old Galician-Portuguese: nevoa
  • Galician: néboa
  • Portuguese: névoa (see there for further descendants)
• Romanian: negură
• Romansch: nebla, neabla
• Sardinian: nébida, neula
• Sicilian: negghia, nìvula
• Spanish: niebla, ⇒ neblina
• Venetian: nebia, nibia
• Borrowings:
  • → English: nebula
  • → Italian: nebula
  • → Portuguese: nébula

References

• “nebula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “nebula”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• nebula in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• nebula in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette