Also 4 Veste. [L. Vesta, the goddess of that name (see sense 1) answering to the Gr. Ἑστία, identical with ἑστία hearth, house, household.]
1. Mythol. A Roman female divinity, the daughter of Saturn, goddess of the hearth and household.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 73. He ȝaf a temple … wiþ fyre to þe goddes Vesta and here maydenes to be worschipped.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 157. Sche which was the Prioresse In Vestes temple the goddesse.
1513. Douglas, Æneid, II. v. 91. The … garlandis Of Vesta, goddes of the erd and fyre.
1589. Greene, Roundelay, Poems (1876), 102. Vesta’s virgins with their holy fires Do cleanse the thoughts that fancy hath defiled.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXVIII. xi. 676. The minds of men were put in feare, for the going out of the fire in the chappell of Vesta.
1632. Milton, Penseroso, 23. Yet thou art higher far descended, Thee bright-hair’d Vesta … To solitary Saturn bore.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, II. 395. He said, and brought me … The venerable statues of the gods, With ancient Vesta from the sacred choir.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Vestals, The Romans were not the only People who kept the perpetual Fire of Vesta, in imitation of the celestial Fires.
1820. Shelley, Witch Atl., xxxiv. Couched … as on Vesta’s sceptre a swift flame.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVI. 285/1. Vesta was regarded as the goddess of domestic union and happiness.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 193/1. If ever the sacred fire of Vesta did go out, the negligent vestal was to be punished by scourging.
attrib. 1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 193/1. Fire was solemnly sent from the prytaneum or Vesta temple of the mother colony.
2. Astr. One of the minor planets, revolving in an orbit between Mars and Jupiter.
1807. Phil. Trans., XCVII. 245. Observations and Measurements of the Planet Vesta.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVI. 285/2. Vesta performs its revolution in about 1326 mean solar days.
1868. Lockyer, Guillemin’s Heavens (ed. 3), 214. The distance, and other elements of the orbit of Vesta, presented serious differences both with this theory and Bode’s law.
3. Used as the distinctive name of a special make of household stove.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVII. 68/2. In … the ‘Vesta stove,’… the ashes can be raked from the grate … without any dust rising into the room.
1843. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., VI. 422/2. The various stoves, Vesta, Chunk, &c.,… are all founded on the Arnott Stove.
4. A kind of wax match. Orig. attrib.
1839. Cath. Sinclair, Holiday House, ii. 25. Laura afterwards singed a hole in her muslin frock, while lighting one of the Vesta matches to seal these numerous notes.
1857. Act 20 & 21 Vict., c. 62 § 2. The following Duties of Customs shall be charged:… Lucifers, Vesta, of Wax, the 1,000 Matches, 0. 0. 01/2.
1859. Cornwallis, Panorama New World, I. 326. Wax vestas, pipes, maccaroni, and candles.
1863. Abel, in Lond. (etc.) Phil. Mag., Nov., 356. Varieties of wax or Vesta matches.
1864. G. L. M. Strauss, etc., Engl. Workshops, 233. The vesta boxes are put in parcels of half-a-dozen and one dozen.
1886. D. C. Murray, First Person Singular, xix. Frost’s trembling fingers had to strike one or two vestas.
1899. T. M. Ellis, Three Cat’s-Eye Rings, 63. The major pulled a vesta-case from his pocket.
