planet

English

Etymology

From Middle English planete, from Old French planete, from Latin planeta, planetes, from Ancient Greek πλανήτης (planḗtēs, “wanderer”) (ellipsis of πλάνητες ἀστέρες (plánētes astéres, “wandering stars”).), from Ancient Greek πλανάω (planáō, “wander about, stray”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Latin pālor (“wander about, stray”), Old Norse flana (“to rush about”), and Norwegian flanta (“to wander about”). More at flaunt.

Perhaps it is from a nasalized form of Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat, broad”) on the notion of "spread out", "but the semantics are highly problematic", according to Beekes, who notes the similarity of meaning to πλάζω (plázō, “to make devious, repel, dissuade from the right path, bewilder”), but adds, "it is hard to think of a formal connection".

So called because they have apparent motion, unlike the "fixed" stars. Originally including also the moon and sun but not the Earth; modern scientific sense of "world that orbits a star" is from 1630s in English. The Greek word is an enlarged form of πλάνης (plánēs, “who wanders around, wanderer”), also "wandering star, planet", in medicine "unstable temperature."

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈplænɪt/
• (General Australian, weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /ˈplænət/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  • Rhymes: -ænɪt

Noun

planet (plural planets)

1. (now historical or astrology) Each of the seven major bodies which move relative to the fixed stars in the night sky—the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes , book II, London: Val Simmes for Edward Blount , →OCLC, page 260:

     Be they not dreames of humane vanity, […] to make of our knowne earth a bright shining planet [translating astre]?

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 288:

     The moon […] began to rise from her bed, where she had slumbered away the day, in order to sit up all night. Jones had not travelled far before he paid his compliments to that beautiful planet, and, turning to his companion, asked him if he had ever beheld so delicious an evening?

   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 361:

     Another of Boehme's followers, the Welshman Morgan Llwyd, also believed that the seven planets could be found within man.

2. (astronomy, historical) Any body that orbits the Sun, including the asteroids (as minor planets) and sometimes the moons of those bodies (as satellite planets)

   Synonyms: wandering star, wanderstar

4. (astronomy, current) A body which is massive enough to be in hydrostatic equilibrium (generally resulting in being an ellipsoid) but not enough to attain nuclear fusion and, in IAU usage, which directly orbits a star (or multiple star) and dominates the region of its orbit; specifically, in the case of the Solar system, the eight major bodies of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

   Synonym: world

   Hypernym: planemo (in IAU usage)

   Hyponyms: binary planet, Blue Planet, carbide planet, carbon planet, classical planet, diamond planet, double planet, dual planet, dwarf planet (in non-IAU usage), exoplanet, extrasolar planet, free-floating planet (in non-IAU usage), gas giant, giant planet, hycean planet, ice giant, inferior planet, inner planet, interstellar planet (in non-IAU usage), major planet, mesoplanet, minor planet (in non-IAU usage), outer planet, Planet Earth, primary planet (in non-IAU usage), Red Planet, rogue planet (in non-IAU usage), satellite planet (in non-IAU usage), silicate planet, silicon planet, supergiant planet, superior planet, superplanet, terrestrial planet, water planet

   Coordinate terms: brown dwarf, sub-brown dwarf

   • 1640, John Wilkins, A Discovrse concerning a New Planet. Tending to prove, That 'tis probable our Earth is one of the Planets, title:

     A Discovrse concerning a New Planet. Tending to prove, That 'tis probable our Earth is one of the Planets

   • 2006 December 22, Alok Jha, The Guardian:

     Their decision will force a rewrite of science textbooks because the solar system is now a place with eight planets and three newly defined "dwarf planets"—a new category of object that includes Pluto.

   • 2009 December 1st, Keiichi Wada, Yusuke Tsukamoto, Eiichiro Kokubo, “Planet Formation around Supermassive Black Holes in the Active Galactic Nuclei”, in The Astrophysical Journal, volume 886, number 2, article 107:
5. construed with the or this: synonym of Earth.
   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     "My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects; […]."

   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […]; perhaps to moralise on the oneness or fragility of the planet, or to see humanity for the small and circumscribed thing that it is; […].

Usage notes

The term planet originally meant any star which wandered across the sky, and generally included comets and the Sun and Moon. With the Copernican revolution, the Earth was recognized as a planet, and the Sun was seen to be fundamentally different. The Galilean satellites of Jupiter were at first called planets (satellite planets), but later reclassified along with the Moon. The first asteroids were also considered to be planets, but were reclassified when it was realized that there were a great many of them, crossing each other's orbits, in a zone where only a single planet had been expected. Likewise, Pluto was found where an outer planet had been expected, but doubts were raised when it turned out to cross Neptune's orbit and to be much smaller than the expectation required. When Eris, an outer body more massive than Pluto, was discovered, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially defined the word planet as above. However, a significant number of astronomers reject the IAU definition, especially in the field of planetary geology. Some are of the opinion that orbital parameters should be irrelevant, and that either any equilibrium (ellipsoidal) body in direct orbit around a star is a planet (there are likely at least a dozen such bodies in the Solar system) or that any equilibrium body at all is a planet, thus re-accepting the Moon, the Galilean satellites and other large moons as planets, as well as rogue planets.

Hypernyms

• planemo

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• (planets of the Solar System) planets of the Solar System; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
• moon
• orbit

References

• planet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Planets in astrology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• First Steps to Astronomy and Geography, 1828, (Hatchard & Son: Piccadilly, London).

Anagrams

• Plante, pental, platen

Albanian

Albanian Wikipedia has an article on:

Planeti

Wikipedia ^sq

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

planet m (plural planete, definite planeti, definite plural planetet)

1. planet

Declension

Azerbaijani

Etymology

Internationalism; ultimately from Latin planēta and Ancient Greek πλανήτης (planḗtēs, “wanderer, planet”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pla‧net

Noun

planet (definite accusative planeti, plural planetlər)

1. (astronomy) planet

   Synonym: səyyarə

Declension

Derived terms

• yadplanetli (“alien”)

Danish

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

planet c (singular definite planeten, plural indefinite planeter)

1. (astronomy) a planet

Inflection

Derived terms

German

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

planet

1. second-person plural subjunctive I of planen

Middle English

Noun

planet

1. Alternative form of planete (“planet”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse planéta, from Latin planēta, from Ancient Greek πλανήτης (planḗtēs, “wanderer”).

Noun

planet m (definite singular planeten, indefinite plural planeter, definite plural planetene)

1. a planet

Derived terms

• planetologi

Related terms

• planetarisk

References

• “planet” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

From Old Norse planéta, from Latin planēta, from Ancient Greek πλανήτης (planḗtēs, “wanderer”).

Noun

planet m (definite singular planeten, indefinite plural planetar, definite plural planetane)

1. a planet

Derived terms

• planetologi

Related terms

• planetarisk

Etymology 2

Noun

planet n

1. definite singular of plan

References

• “planet” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpla.nɛt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -anɛt
• Syllabification: pla‧net

Noun

planet f

1. genitive plural of planeta

Romanian

Noun

planet m (plural planeți)

1. Alternative form of planetă

Declension

Romansch

Noun

planet m (plural planets)

1. (astronomy, astrology) planet

Serbo-Croatian

Alternative forms

• planéta (Bosnia, Serbia)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plǎneːt/
• Hyphenation: pla‧net

Noun

plànēt m (Cyrillic spelling пла̀не̄т)

1. (usually Croatia) planet

Declension

Slovene

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /planéːt/

Noun

planẹ̑t m inan

1. (astronomy) planet

Inflection

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.

Derived terms

See also

• (planets of the Solar System) planéti osónčja; Merkúr, Vénera, Zémlja, Márs, Júpiter, Satúrn, Urán, Neptún

Swedish

Etymology 1

Ultimately from Ancient Greek πλανήτης (planḗtēs).

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Noun

planet c

1. (astronomy) planet

Declension

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

planet

1. definite singular of plan

Turkish

Etymology

Borrowed from French planète.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɫaˈnet/
• Hyphenation: pla‧net

Noun

planet (definite accusative planeti, plural planetler)

1. (astronomy, rare) planet

   Synonym: gezegen

Declension