a. and sb. [f. L. lūnāris LUNAR + -IAN.]
A. adj. Inhabiting the moon.
1868. Lockyer, Guillemin’s Heavens (ed. 3), 165. The lunarian observer situated on the invisible hemisphere.
B. sb.
1. A dweller in the moon.
1708. Brit. Apollo, No. 13. 2/2. Be those Lunarians false or true.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., IV. xxxvii. 23. When it is what we call New Moon, we will appear as a Full Moon to the Lunarians.
a. 1849. Poe, Mellonta Tauta, Wks. 1865, IV. 299. Creatures so diminutive as the lunarians.
1880. P. Greg, Acr. Zodiac, I. ii. 41. During an eclipse, the Lunarian would see round the Earth a halo created by [etc.].
2. One who observes or describes the moon; one who used the lunar method in finding longitude.
1817. E. Ward (title), The Lunarian, or Seaman’s Guide; being a practical Introduction to the Method of ascertaining the Longitude at Sea.
1881. Proctor, Poetry Astron., vi. 233. Nor does Schröter or any of the older lunarians indicate a crater at this part of the moon’s surface.
1901. Blackw. Mag., Oct., 476/2. The expert lunarians—the men who found their longitude from observation of the moon—are gone.
