a. and sb. [ad. L. lūnār-is, f. lūna moon: see -AR.] A. adj.
1. Of or belonging to the moon; situated in the moon; formerly often, influenced by or dependent upon the moon, or supposed to be so.
Lunar race: a legendary race of Indian kings (Candrávança) supposed to have been descended from the moon.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 493. They haue denominated some Herbs Solar and some Lunar.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., Introd. The Lunar [animals] are the cat, beaver, dog, goat, hart, otter.
1762. Hoole, Tasso’s Jerus. Delivered, VIII. 232. There full the lunar beam resplendent play’d.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), I. 255. There are solar tides, and lunar tides.
1800. trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 352. The alchemists gave the name of Solar Metals to those which are coloured; and that of Lunar to those which are white.
1834. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sci., ii. 10. The reaction of that matter on the moon is the cause of a corresponding nutation in the lunar orbit.
1841. Elphinstone, Hist. Ind., I. 259. The lunar race has but forty-eight names in the same period, in which the solar has ninety-five.
1854. W. K. Kelly, Arago’s Astron. (ed. 5), 73. The existence of lunar volcanoes is in no wise demonstrated.
1878. Abney, Photogr. (1881), 303. Lunar photography.
b. Specialized collocations.
Lunar cycle = Metonic cycle (see CYCLE sb. 2). Lunar day, the interval of time between two successive crossings of the meridian by the moon. Lunar dial (see quot.). Lunar distance, in Naut. Astr., the distance of the moon from the sun, a planet or a fixed star, which is used in calculating longitude at sea. Lunar equation, the intercalation of a lunar month after three lunar years; also, the correction of the epact in the Gregorian calendar necessitated by the error of the lunar cycle. Lunar horoscope (see quot.). Lunar hour, the 24th part of a lunar day. Lunar mansion (see MANSION). Lunar method, in Naut. Astr., the method of determining longitude at sea by means of lunar distances. Lunar month, the interval from one new moon to the next, about 291/2 days; in popular language often used for a period of 28 days (four weeks). Lunar nodes, the point at which the orbit of the moon cuts the ecliptic. Lunar observation, in Naut. Astr., an observation of lunar distances in finding the longitude at sea. Lunar rainbow, one formed by the moon’s rays. Lunar star, a star whose geocentric distance from the moon is given in the Nautical Almanac for certain hours, so that the longitude may be found from them. Lunar tables, (1) tables of the moon’s motion from which its true place at any time may be found; (2) logarithmic tables for correcting the apparent distance of the moon from a star, on account of refraction and parallax. Lunar theory, the deduction of the moon’s motion from the law of gravitation. Lunar year, a period consisting of twelve lunar months (about 3541/3 days).
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., s.v. Cycle of the Moon, Enneadecaterides is, with some, the Name of this *Lunar Cycle.
1686. Goad, Celest. Bodies, I. xii. 58. As there is a Lunar Month consisting of 28 or 29 Days, so there is a *Lunar Day.
1862. Bache, Discuss. Magn. & Meteorol. Observ., III. 8. The curves … show two east and two west deflections in a lunar day.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Dial. Moon-Dial, or *Lunar Dial, is that which shews the hour of the night by means of the light, or shadow, of the moon, projected thereon from an index.
1830. Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., 27. A page of *‘lunar distances’ from the Nautical Almanack.
1712. Desaguliers, trans. Ozanam’s Geog., 66. The Addition of 30 Days to the third Lunar Year, is call’d the *Lunar Equation.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Horoscope, *Lunar Horoscope is the point which the moon issues out of, when the sun is in the ascending point of the east. This is also called the part of fortune.
1862. Bache, Discuss. Magn. & Meteorol. Observ., III. 1. Each observation was marked with its corresponding *lunar hour.
1860. Worcester, *Lunar method.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., III. I. xlv. (1636), 358. The *Lunar month is that space of time which the Moone spendeth while she departing from the Sunne, returneth to him againe.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Lunar periodical Months, consist of twenty seven days, seven hours, and a few minutes. Lunar synodical Months consist of twenty nine days, twelve hours, and three quarters of an hour.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. 141. A month in law is a lunar month, or twenty eight days, unless otherwise expressed.
1883. P. Schaff, Hist. Church, I. II. xvi. 133. The month Nisan was the first of the twelve lunar months of the Jewish year.
1715. trans. Gregory’s Astron., I. 37. If the abovementioned meeting of the Sun, and *Lunar Node, happens on the very Day of the New Moon.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxxi. 112. The Captain got a *lunar observation as well as his meridian altitude.
1711. Thoresby, in Phil. Trans., XXVII. 320. An Account of a *Lunar Rain-bow seen in Darbyshire.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxiii. 74. He knew every lunar star in both hemispheres.
1864. Webster, *Lunar Tables.
1834. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sci., vi. 34. In the *lunar theory the sun is the great disturbing cause.
1883. Encycl. Brit., XVI. 800/1. The modern lunar theory commenced with Newton.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., III. I. xliv. (1636), 357. Of *lunar yeeres there be two kinds, whereof the one is ordinary,… and the other extraordinary or excessive,… the ordinarie or common yeere, is the space of twelve Moones or changes. Ibid. The extraordinarie Lunar yeere … is the space of thirteene Moones or changes containing 384 daies.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. 221. The Greeks had begun to compensate for the defect of the lunar year, by the occasional addition of an intercalary month.
2. Transferred and figurative uses.
a. Monthly, menstrual. rare.
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 630. In the time of Pregnancy, or her Lunar visits.
1822. Good, Study Med., IV. 64. The cessation of her lunar discharge.
b. Having the character of the moon as opposed to that of the sun; not warmly bright; pale, pallid.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., III. 56. A theme so like thee, a quite lunar theme, Soft, modest, melancholy, female, fair.
1864. Spectator, 425. Which we might call lunar poetry,—poetry without brilliancy, passion, or warmth, but yet containing glimpses of a pale but true beauty.
1902. Swinburne, in Q. Rev., July, 26. Even the lustre of Partridge [in Tom Jones] is pallid and lunar beside the noontide glory of Micawber.
c. Lunar politics: used allusively for ‘matters of no practical concern.’
1868. Huxley, Lay Serm., vii. (1870), 159. Hume’s strong and subtle intellect takes up a great many problems about which we are naturally curious, and shows us that they are essentially questions of lunar politics, in their essence incapable of being answered.
3. Crescent-shaped, LUNATE. Lunar bone (= medical L. os lunare): = B. 3. Also, marked with crescent-shaped spots, as lunar underwing.
1635. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Banish’d Virg., 179. The Dwellings spreading … from one point of the Heaven to the other in a lunar forme.
1693. Dryden, Iphis & Ianthe, Poet. Wks. (Aldine ed.), IV. 186. The lunar horns, that bind The brows of Isis.
1703. Pope, Thebais, 864. Who grasps the struggling heifer’s lunar horns.
1759. W. Wilkie, Epigoniad, II. (1769), 22. Each with a faulchion armed and lunar shield.
1843. Westwood, Brit. Moths, I. 133. Orthosia lunosa (the lunar under wing). Ibid. (1845), II. 10. Geometra lunaria (the lunar thorn).
1863. Reeve, Land & Freshw. Mollusks, 50. Aperture broadly obliquely lunar.
1887. E. D. Cope, Orig. Fittest, vii. 264. The separation of the scaphoid and lunar bones.
4. Of or containing silver (see LUNA 2 a). Lunar caustic, nitrate of silver fused.
1800. Asiat. Ann. Reg., Misc. Tr., 331/2. The little success attending the use of the lunar caustic in these experiments.
1822. Good, Study Med., I. 313. The lunar pill of Boerhaave, formed from a preparation of silver, which may be regarded as a mild lunar caustic.
1826. Ottley, Dict. Chem., Silver, Nitrate of; formerly called Lunar Nitre, Lunar Crystals, or Crystals of Silver, and when fused Lunar Caustic.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 789. The cornea of both eyes was touched with a point of lunar caustic.
5. In Arabic grammar: The epithet of the class of consonants before which the l of the article is not assimilated; so called because including q, the initial of qamar moon. Opposed to solar.
1776. J. Richardson, Arab. Gram., iii. 8. The dentals and linguals are called solar letters, the rest lunar.
6. Comb.: lunar-diurnal a., pertaining to the lunar day; lunar-magnetic a., pertaining to magnetism as affected by the moon’s position.
1856. Sadine, in Phil. Trans., CXLVI. 499. The Lunar-diurnal Variations of the Inclination … at that Station.
1862. Bache, Discuss. Magn. & Meteorol. Observ., III. 11. The lunar-magnetic interval for the Philadelphia station.
B. sb.
† 1. A moon-like body, satellite. Obs.
1651. R. Child, in Hartlib’s Legacy (1655), 161. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, have their Lunars or small Stars moving about them.
2. A lunar distance; a lunar observation.
1830. Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., 28. We steered towards Rio de Janeiro for some days after taking the lunars above described.
1875. Bedford, Sailor’s Pocket Bk., v. (ed. 2), 194. In taking Lunars, stars lying at about equal distances, east and west of the moon, should be chosen.
3. A bone of the wrist, shaped like a half-moon. Also in Latin form lunare.
1854. R. Owen, in Circ. Sci. (c. 1865), II. 88/1. The carpal bones, answering to the scaphoid and lunar in the human wrist, are … confluent.
1872. Mivart, Elem. Anat., 169. The scaphoid coalesces with the lunare in the Carnivora.
