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GIBBOUS (adj.)
Definition(s):
- (adj.) seen with more than half but not all of the apparent disk illuminated (as the moon); pertaining to a phase of a moon or planet between the first quarter and full, or between full and the last quarter
- (adj.) irregularly rounded; marked by convexity or swelling
- (adj.) having a hump; humpbacked
Useful information for game players:
- Front hooks: (none)
- Back hooks: (none)
- Anagrams: (none)
- Longer extensions: gibbousLY
- Wraparounds: (none)
- Other Spellings: GIBBOSE
- Related Forms: GIBBOSITY
Epilogue:
One curiosity is that the earth’s moon has no official name — though writers have often called it by poetic names associated with deities such as Hecate, Luna (the source of many lunar words), or Selene (the source of several seleno- words such as SELENOLOGY, the study of the moon). The reason, of course, is that until modern times the moons of other planets were not known, and thus the only moon was “The Moon” — the word itself evolving from the Old English mona, with roots in an ancient Proto-Indo-European stem probably meaning “measure,” a reference to humankind’s reliance on the moon as a timekeeping object. Since the 1600s, when Galileo discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter, astronomers have named the moons of other planets as they have been discovered.
We do, of course, have established terms for the phases of the moon, as you probably learned in grade school: new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, last quarter, and waning crescent. The odd word GIBBOUS, now primarily used to refer to the gibbous moon, derives from the Latin gibbus, “hump.” The word was in general use to refer to any protuberance from the 1400s, and it has been applied to moons and planets since the 1600s.
Theme:
Lunar words
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