Colure

Definitions

  • Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • n Colure (Astron. & Geog) One of two great circles intersecting at right angles in the poles of the equator. One of them passes through the equinoctial points, and hence is denominated the equinoctial colure; the other intersects the equator at the distance of 90° from the former, and is called the solstitial colure. "Thrice the equinoctial line
      He circled; four times crossed the car of night
      From pole to pole, traversing each colure ."
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • n colure In astronomy and geography, one of two circles of declination intersecting each other at right angles in the poles of the world, one of them passing through the solstitial and the other through the equinoctial points of the ecliptic, viz., Cancer and Capricorn, Aries and Libra, and thus dividing both the ecliptic and the equinoctial into four equal parts.
    • n colure In vegetable pathol., a disease of the grape, characterized by the falling of the flowers and the imperfect development of the fruit. It has been attributed chiefly to unfavorable climatic conditions.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • n Colure kō-lūr′ (astron.) one of two great circles supposed to intersect each other at right angles in the poles of the equator.
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Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
F. colure, L. coluri, pl., fr. Gr. ko`loyros dock-tailed, a"i ko`loyroisc. grammai` lines) the colures; fr. ko`los docked, stunted + o'yra` tail. So named because a part is always beneath the horizon
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
Gr. kolourus—kolos, docked, oura, tail.

Usage

In literature:

Thus after seventy-two years the colure of the vernal equinox which passed through a fixed star, corresponds with another fixed star.
"Letters on England" by Voltaire
He is now advancing among the stars, and will soon be again upon the equinoctial colure.
"Scientific American, Vol. XXXIX.--No. 24. [New Series.], December 14, 1878" by Various
The western star, in the head of Andromeda, lies in the equinoctial colure.
"Letters on Astronomy" by Denison Olmsted
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