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auroras

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auroras


  1  definition  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Aurora  \Au*ro"ra\,  n.;  pl  E.  {Auroras},  L.  (rarely  used) 
  {Auror[ae]}.  [L.  aurora,  for  ausosa  akin  to  Gr  ?,  ?,  dawn, 
  Skr.  ushas,  and  E.  east.] 
  1.  The  rising  light  of  the  morning;  the  dawn  of  day  the 
  redness  of  the  sky  just  before  the  sun  rises. 
 
  2.  The  rise,  dawn,  or  beginning.  --Hawthorne. 
 
  3.  (Class.  Myth.)  The  Roman  personification  of  the  dawn  of 
  day  the  goddess  of  the  morning.  The  poets  represented  her 
  a  rising  out  of  the  ocean,  in  a  chariot,  with  rosy  fingers 
  dropping  gentle  dew. 
 
  4.  (Bot.)  A  species  of  crowfoot.  --Johnson. 
 
  5.  The  aurora  borealis  or  aurora  australis  (northern  or 
  southern  lights). 
 
  {Aurora  borealis},  i.  e.,  northern  daybreak;  popularly  called 
  northern  lights.  A  luminous  meteoric  phenomenon,  visible 
  only  at  night,  and  supposed  to  be  of  electrical  origin. 
  This  species  of  light  usually  appears  in  streams, 
  ascending  toward  the  zenith  from  a  dusky  line  or  bank,  a 
  few  degrees  above  the  northern  horizon;  when  reaching 
  south  beyond  the  zenith,  it  forms  what  is  called  the 
  corona,  about  a  spot  in  the  heavens  toward  which  the 
  dipping  needle  points.  Occasionally  the  aurora  appears  as 
  an  arch  of  light  across  the  heavens  from  east  to  west. 
  Sometimes  it  assumes  a  wavy  appearance,  and  the  streams  of 
  light  are  then  called  merry  dancers.  They  assume  a  variety 
  of  colors,  from  a  pale  red  or  yellow  to  a  deep  red  or 
  blood  color.  The 
 
  {Aurora  australis}is  a  corresponding  phenomenon  in  the 
  southern  hemisphere,  the  streams  of  light  ascending  in  the 
  same  manner  from  near  the  southern  horizon. 




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