Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Luna

‖

Lu′na

,
Noun.
[L.; akin to
lucere
to shine. See
Light
,
Noun.
, and cf.
Lune
.]
1.
The moon.
2.
(Alchemy)
Silver.

Definition 2024

Luna

Luna

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

English

Proper noun

Luna

  1. The name of Earth's moon.
  2. (Roman mythology) The sister of Aurora and Sol; the goddess of the moon; equivalent to the Greek Selene.
  3. A female given name.
    • 1837 James Hogg, "The Mysterious Bride", Talks and Sketches: The Shepherd's Calendar (Blackie & Son), page 343:
      - - - and it so happened, that in one of old Bryan's daughters named Luna, or more familiarly Loony, he perceived, or thought he perceived, some imaginary similarity in form and air to the lovely apparition.
    • 2003 J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Bloomsbury, ISBN 0747551006), page 236:
      A few seconds later, Luna Lovegood emerged, trailing behind the rest of the class, a smudge of earth on her nose, and her hair tied in a knot on the top of her head.
  4. A given name for a female pet.
  5. (alchemy) Silver.

Translations

Coordinate terms

See also

Anagrams

Catalan

Proper noun

Luna f

  1. The Moon

Danish

Proper noun

Luna

  1. (Roman mythology) Luna
  2. A female given name of modern usage.

German

Proper noun

Luna

  1. (Roman mythology) Luna
  2. A female given name of modern usage.

Latin

Etymology

The city's amphitheatre

Pronunciation

  • (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈluː.na/, [ˈɫuː.na]

Proper noun

Lūna f ‎(genitive Lūnae); first declension

  1. a city of Etruria, situated on the left bank of the Macra

Declension

First declension.

Case Singular
nominative Lūna
genitive Lūnae
dative Lūnae
accusative Lūnam
ablative Lūnā
vocative Lūna

Derived terms

  • Lūnēnsis

References

Slovene

Etymology

See lúna.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈlùːna/
  • Tonal orthography: lúna

Proper noun

Lúna f ‎(genitive Lúne)

  1. the Moon (of Earth)

Declension

Synonyms

See also

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈluna/

Etymology 1

From Latin lūna.

Proper noun

Luna f

  1. Earth's Moon
    La Luna es el único satélite natural de la Tierra.
    The Moon is the Earth's only natural satellite.
  2. A female given name of modern usage.

Etymology 2

From dialectal Aragonese luna ‎(“lights”), a habitational name for someone living by an open courtyard.

Proper noun

Luna f

  1. A surname​.

luna

luna

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

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈluːnə/
  • Homophones: lunar, looner (in non-rhotic accents)

Noun

luna ‎(plural lunas)

  1. (entomology) A luna moth: a member of species Actias luna.
    • 1944, Elizabeth Enright, Then There Were Five, 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

Etymology 2

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

Noun

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), 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

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

Anagrams

References

  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)

Czech

Etymology

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

luna f

  1. moon

Declension

Synonyms

Related terms

Esperanto

Pronunciation

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

Adjective

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

  1. (astronomy) lunar

Interlingua

Noun

luna ‎(plural lunas)

  1. moon

Italian

Etymology

From Latin lūna, from Old Latin losna, from Proto-Italic *louksnā, from Proto-Indo-European *lowksneh₂, derived from the root *lewk- ‎(“bright”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈlu.na/, [ˈl̺uːn̺ä]
  • Hyphenation: lù‧na

Noun

luna f ‎(plural lune)

  1. the Moon
    • c. 13th century, Francis of Assisi, “Cantico di Frate Sole”, Biblioteca del Sacro Convento di San Francesco :
      Laudato ſi mi ſignore ᵱ ſora luna e le ſtelle, in celu lai foꝛmate clarite ⁊ p̃tioſe ⁊ belle.
      Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars; in the heavens You have made them bright, precious and beautiful.
    • 1472, Dante Alighieri, La divina commedia: Inferno, Johannes Numeister, Canto VII:
      [...] che tutto loro che ſotto laluna ¶ et che gia fu dequeſte 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, La divina commedia: Inferno, Le Monnier (1994), Canto XXXIII, p. 490 vv. 22, 25-26:
      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

Anagrams

Latin

lūna (the Moon)

Etymology

From Old Latin losna, from Proto-Italic *louksnā, from Proto-Indo-European *lowksneh₂, which is derived from Proto-Indo-European *lewk-. Cognates include Ancient Greek λύχνος ‎(lúkhnos), Old Church Slavonic лоуна ‎(luna), and Middle Irish luan, Persian روز ‎(ruz) Persian رخ ‎(rox).

Pronunciation

Noun

lūna f ‎(genitive lūnae); first declension

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

Inflection

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

Descendants

See also

References

  • 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
  • LUNA in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
  • Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, 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

Etymology

From Latin lūna.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈlunɐ/

Noun

luna f (please add the plural)

  1. moon

Occitan

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin lūna.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈlyno]

Noun

luna f (plural lunas)

  1. moon

Polish

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *lunà.

Noun

luna f

  1. (archaic) moon

Declension

Derived terms

Romanian

Noun

luna f

  1. definite singular nominative and accusative form of lună.

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *lunà.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈluːna/

Noun

luna f ‎(Cyrillic spelling луна)

  1. (dated, now rare) moon

Synonyms

Sicilian

Etymology

From Latin lūna.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

luna f (plural luni)

  1. moon

Derived terms

  • luniddì
  • lunariari

Slovak

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

Noun

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

  1. (archaic, poetic) moon

Declension

Synonyms

Derived terms

  • lunárny

Slovene

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *lunà.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈlùːna/
  • Tonal orthography: lúna

Noun

lúna f ‎(genitive lúne, nominative plural lúne)

  1. moon

Declension

Synonyms

See also

Spanish

Etymology

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

  • IPA(key): [ˈlu.na]

Noun

luna f ‎(plural lunas)

  1. moon

Derived terms

Etymology

From Latin lūna.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈlunə/

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