▪ I. galaxy, n.
(ˈgæləksɪ)
Forms: α. 4–7 (from med.L.) galaxias, 6–7 galaxia; β. 4, 7 gal(l)axie, -ye, 8– galaxy.
[ad. OF. and F. galaxie, ad. L. galaxias (med. Lat. also galaxia), Gr. γαλαξίας, f. γαλακτ-, γάλα milk.]
1. a. A luminous band or track, encircling the heavens irregularly, and known to consist of innumerable stars, perceptible only by means of the telescope; the Milky Way.
| α 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. viii. (1495) 305 Galaxias is a cercle of heuen more fayr and bryghte than other cercles. 1569 J. Sandford tr. Agrippa's Van. Artes 43 b, The Astrologers be yet ignorant what Galaxias is, that is to saie, the Milkie circle. 1583 T. Watson Centurie of Loue xxxi. Annot. Poems (Arb.) 67 Galaxia..is a white way or milky Circle in the heauens. 1613 Heywood Silver Age ii. Wks. 1874 III. 98 Let Iuno..With her quicke feet the galaxia weare. 1625 Ussher Answ. Jesuit 333 Pointing to the Galaxias or milky circle. a 1680 Charnock Attrib. God (1834) II. 6 That combination of weaker stars, which they call the Galaxia. |
| β c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame ii. 428 See yonder, lo, the Galaxyë Which men clepeth the Milky Wey, For hit is whyt. 1651 Cleveland Poems 1 A brown, for which, Heaven would disband The Gallaxye, and stars be tann'd. 1714 Derham Astro-Theol. Prel. Disc. p. xlvi, The Galaxy being well known to be the fertile place of New Stars. 1805 Wordsw. Vaudracour & Julia 97 Meanwhile the galaxy displayed Her fires. 1854 Moseley Astron. xci. (ed. 4) 234 The Galaxy, or Milky-way, passes through the heavens like an irregular zone. 1878 Stewart & Tait Unseen Univ. ii §84 The life of whole systems, perhaps even of whole galaxies, would thus disappear. |
b. Any of the numerous large groups of stars and other matter that exist in space as independent systems; spec. (often with capital initial) the group that contains the solar system and whose plane of maximum star density gives rise to the observed Milky Way.
| 1848 J. P. Nichol Stellar Universe iii. 59 Superb groups or galaxies separated from each other by gulfs so awful, that they surpass the distances which divide star from star... Amid this system of clusters, floats the galaxy whose glories more nearly surround us. 1888 C. A. Young Gen. Astron. xxi. 503 The belief that these star-clusters are stellar universes,—‘galaxies’, like the group of stars to which the writers supposed the sun to belong. 1930 R. H. Baker Astron. xii. 480 The existence of galaxies beyond the Milky Way was finally demonstrated by Hubble in 1925. 1966 F. Hoyle Galaxies, Nuclei & Quasars i. 1 The best known galaxy is naturally the one we live in... In total mass and in size it seems to be much like the nearest of the large external galaxies, the nebula in Andromeda. 1968 D. S. Evans Observation Mod. Astron. vii. 228 The spiral character of the Galaxy cannot be so marked as that in some external galaxies. |
2. transf. and fig.; now chiefly applied to a brilliant assemblage or crowd of beautiful women or distinguished persons.
| 1590 Greene Never too late Wks. (Rtldg.) 298 The milk⁓white galaxia of her brow. a 1631 Donne Poems (1650) 51 Upon this Primrose hill, Where..Their form and their infinitie Make a terrestriall Galaxie. 1640 Bp. Hall Rem. Wks. (1660) 45 Others [stars] small, and scarce visible in the Galaxy of the Church. 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Rich. II, clxxxiii, My verse had trod The Galaxie of fame, to Crowne his merit. 1704 Steele Lying Lover Prol., Where such bright Galaxies of Beauty sit. 1762 Goldsm. Cit. W. lxiii, The brightness of a single genius seemed lost in a galaxy of contiguous glory. 1802 Wellington in Gurw. Desp. I. 376 The Hon. Mount-Stuart Elphinstone, Mr. Wilks, and Major Munro..were also constellations in that galaxy. 1820 Scott Monast. xvi, The smiles of those beauties, who form a galaxy around the throne of England. 1838–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. III. vii. iii. §19. 361 The heiress of this family became the central star of so bright a galaxy. 1842 J. W. Orderson Creol. xix. 228 His countenance was a galaxy of joy. 1862 Sala Seven Sons I. vii. 164 A waiter was present solemnly lighting a galaxy of wax-candles. 1887 Frith Autobiog. III. xxviii. 407 A galaxy of ability that is truly remarkable. |
3. U.S. brandy-galaxy, ? brandy and milk.
| 1845 P. Parley's Ann. VI. 176 Will was especially fond of mint julip, and brandy galaxy. |
4. attrib.
| 1867–77 G. F. Chambers Astron. vi. iv. 536 A splendid galaxy cluster. 1884 Century Mag. XXVII. 916 If the Kantian galaxy-theory were true. |
▪ II. † galaxy, v. Obs.—1
(ˈgæləksɪ)
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To gather like a galaxy into (something).
| 1702 C. Mather Magn. Chr. iii. iv. i. (1852) 585 Let all their vertues then be galaxied into this one indistinct lustre. |