Monday, August 24, 2015

Word of the Day

sidereal
\sahy-DEER-ee-uhl\

adjective
1. Astronomy. determined by or from the stars: sidereal time.
2. Astronomy. of or pertaining to the stars.

Quotes
The sparkling points of light flashed past me in an interminable stream, as though the whole sidereal system were dropping into the void.
-- Jack London, The Sea Wolf, 1904

Origin
Though the term looks like a combination of side and real, it comes from the Latin word sīdus, meaning "star, constellation," with the suffix -al, meaning "pertaining to," as in the common word natural.

Dictionary.com