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Saturday 3 March 2012

Entry: gibbous (adj.)


In context: "And they both could feel this queer dry night-desert chill descend with the moon's gibbous rise - a powdery wind down below making dust to shift and cactus needles whistle, the sky's stars adjusting to the color of low flame - but were themselves not yet chilled, even Steeply's sleeveless dress: he and Marathe stood and sat in the form-fitting astral spacesuit of warmth their own radiant heat provided."

Definition: Astron. Said of the moon or a planet when the illuminated portion exceeds a semicircle, but is less than a circle.


Other: I'm curious to what/whom the author is referring: 


1690    W. Leybourn Cursus Mathematicus f. 449,   She is liable to the same variety of changes as the Moon, sometimes almost Full, at other times Gibbous.

SNOOT score: 2


Page: 109

 
Source: Oxford English Dictionary



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