a. [f. L. zōdiacus: see prec. and -AL.] Of, pertaining to, or situated in the zodiac.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 372. The yerely course of the Sunne throgh the .12. signes Zodiacall.
1682. Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor., III. § 26 (1716), 121. The Northern Zodiacal Signs.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, V. 256. Before the full revolution of a Zodiacal Girdle [i.e., before the completion of a year].
1715. trans. Gregory’s Astron., I. 304. By the help of the Moon,… they placed this Zodiacal Armilla in such a situation as was agreeable to the present moment of time.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sci. (1857), II. 226. Pearson’s [catalogue] has 520 zodiacal stars.
1878. Newcomb, Pop. Astron., I. i. 18. The zodiacal constellations occupy quite unequal spaces in the heavens.
b. Zodiacal light: a tract of nebulous light extending along the zodiac on each side of the sun in the form of an elongated ellipse; in the temperate zones visible chiefly after sunset in late winter and early spring, and before sunrise in autumn.
1734. Eames, in Phil. Trans., XXXVIII. 244. The Zodiacal Light is the purer unmixed Atmosphere of the Sun.
1849. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sci., xxxvii. (ed. 8), 449. [Professor Olmsted] agrees with La Place in thinking that the zodiacal light is a nebulous body, revolving in the plane of the solar equator.
1876. Tait, Rec. Adv. Phys. Sci., x. 259. The zodiacal light, which obviously cannot possibly be part of the gaseous atmosphere of the sun.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 411/2. The Zodiacal light is supposed to be the remains of the great nebula out of which the solar system was constructed.
