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Origin and history of luna

luna(n.)

late 14c. "the moon," especially as personified in a Roman goddess answering to Greek Selene; also an alchemical name for "silver;" from Latin luna "moon, goddess of the moon," from PIE *leuksna- (source also of Old Church Slavonic luna "moon," Old Prussian lauxnos "stars," Middle Irish luan "light, moon"), suffixed form of root *leuk- "light, brightness." The luna moth (1841, American English) so called for the crescent-shaped eye-spots on its wings.

also from late 14c.

Entries linking to luna

clair-de-lune(n.)

"soft white or pale blue-gray color," 1877, French, literally "moonlight," also used as "color of moonlight." See clear (adj.) + luna. Debussy's famous passage of that name (1890) was inspired by Verlaine's poem (1869).

lunar(adj.)

early 15c., "crescent-shaped;" 1620s, "pertaining to the moon," from Old French lunaire (15c.), from Latin lunaris "of the moon," from luna "moon" (see luna).

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Selene
a name of the moon goddess, equivalent to Latin Luna, from Greek selēnē "the moon; name of the moon goddess," related to...
month
words from this root in Greek (mēn) and Latin (mensis) was accompanied by the creation of new words for "moon" (selēnē, luna...
titan
It was discovered 1655 by Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who named it Saturni Luna "moon of Saturn," but others soon...
crescent
Applied in Latin to the waxing moon, luna crescens, but subsequently in Latin mistaken to refer to the shape, not the stage...
tunnel
The amusement park tunnel of love is attested from 1911 (in reference to New York's Luna Park)....
moth
"nocturnal lepidopterous insect," Middle English motthe, from Old English moððe (Northumbrian mohðe), a common Germanic word (compare Old Norse motti, Middle Dutch motte, Dutch mot, German Motte "moth"), perhaps related to Old English maða "maggot," or perhaps from the root of mi
police
1530s, "the regulation and control of a community" (similar in sense to policy (n.1)); from Middle French police "organized government, civil administration" (late 15c.), from Latin politia "civil administration," from Greek polis "city" (see polis). Until mid-19c. used in Englan
prerogative
"special right or privilege granted to someone; characteristic right inhering in one's nature, office, or position," late 14c., prerogatif, (in Anglo-Latin from late 13c.), from Old French prerogative (14c.) and directly from Medieval Latin prerogativa "special right," from Latin
gobbledygook
also gobbledegook, "the overinvolved, pompous talk of officialdom" [Klein], 1944, American English, first used by Texas politician Maury Maverick (1895-1954), a grandson of the inspiration for maverick and chairman of U.S. Smaller War Plants Corporation during World War II, in a
fail
c. 1200, "be unsuccessful in accomplishing a purpose;" also "cease to exist or to function, come to an end;" early 13c. as "fail in expectation or performance," from Old French falir "be lacking, miss, not succeed; run out, come to an end; err, make a mistake; be dying; let down,

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