[L. ursa bear (esp. she-bear), Great Bear constellation. Cf. URSE, and Pr. and Pg. ursa, It. orsa, Sp. oso.]
1. Astr. = sense 2.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxix. § 13. Ne se steorra þe we hatað Ursa ne cymð næfre on þam westdæle.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., IV. met. vi. (1868), 143. Þe sterre yclepid þe bere…. Þe same sterre vrsa.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, XVIII. 606. The might Of huge Orion, with Him Ursa call’d, Known also by his popular name, the Wain, That spins around the pole.
2. Ursa Major: a. Astr. The northern constellation also called the Great Bear.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VIII. xxiii. (Bodl. MS.). Þe taille of þe figure that hatte vrsa maior.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. 710. Amongis sterrys … sche is stallyd, And Vrsa Maior is of clerkys callyd.
1553. Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 22. Being not farre from Vrsa maior, called charles wayne.
1605. Shaks., Lear, I. ii. 141. My Natiuity was vnder Vrsa Maior, so that it followes, I am rough and Leacherous.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Constellation, Thus, Hevelius, v. g. between Leo and Ursa Major, makes Leo Minor;… under the Tail of Ursa Major, Canes Venatici, &c.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr., III. xi. The huge Winds, that sweep from Ursa Major to the Tropics.
1868. Lockyer, Elem. Astron., § 341. One of the most striking circumpolar constellations is Ursa Major,… the Plough, or Charles’ Wain, as it is otherwise called.
b. † (a) One whose sign or symbol is a bear (see first quot.). Obs. (b) A person (regarded as) having a very bearish disposition or appearance.
a. 1635. Naunton, Fragm. Reg. (Arb.), 31. There were others that steered and stood at the Helm besides himself [Burleigh], and more Starres in the Firmament of her grace [Q. Eliz.] than Vrsa major, or the Bear with the ragged staffe.
1773. Boswell, Tour Hebrides, 6 Nov. My father’s opinion of Dr. Johnson may be conjectured from the name he afterwards gave him, which was Ursa Major.
1788. Burns, Fête Champetre, i. Or him [sc. Jas. Boswell] wha led o’er Scotland a’ The meikle Ursa-Major.
1893. Crockett, Stickit Min., 273. Strong, stalwart, unkemp, John Bradford,… Minister of the Queen, strode over the Galloway heather in his rough homespun. ‘Ursa Major’ they called him in the House.
3. Ursa Minor, the Little Bear constellation.
[1597. G. Harvey, Trim. Nashe, G 2 b. At last louing like … the two sisters Vrsa maior and Vrsa minor, wee may bee carried vp to heauen together, and there translated into two starres.
1638. Chilmead, Treat. Globes, iii. (Hakl. Soc.), 50. The first [northern constellation] is called in Latine Ursa Minor,… that is to say, the lesser Beare.]
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Septentrio, A Northern Constellation, more usually call’d Ursa minor, or the little Bear.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVI. 55/1. Ursa major and Ursa Minor … [are] two of the most remarkable constellations of the northern hemisphere.
1868. Lockyer, Elem. Astron., § 341. The northern celestial pole lies in Ursa Minor.
