Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun 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.
- noun 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.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (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 thesolstitial colure.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun astronomy Either of two
great circles (meridians ), that intersect at thepoles and either theequinoxes orsolstices
Etymologies
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Examples
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The meridian at midnight at the time of the spring equinox is called a "colure," -- the "autumnal colure," because the sun crosses it in autumn.
The Astronomy of the Bible An Elementary Commentary on the Astronomical References of Holy Scripture 1889
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Thus after seventy-two years the colure of the vernal equinox which passed through a fixed star, corresponds with another fixed star.
Letter XVII-On Infinites in Geometry, and Sir Isaac Newton’s Chronology Voltaire 1909
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Where the four circles, the horizon, the zodiac, the equator, and the equinoctial colure join; the last three intersecting each other so as to form three crosses, as may be seen in the armillary sphere.
Paradise. Canto I 1909
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All this being laid down, the only thing remaining to settle chronology is to see through what star the colure of the equinoxes passes, and where it intersects at this time the ecliptic in the spring; and to discover whether some ancient writer does not tell us in what point the ecliptic was intersected in his time, by the same colure of the equinoxes.
Letter XVII-On Infinites in Geometry, and Sir Isaac Newton’s Chronology Voltaire 1909
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Where the ecliptic crosses the solstitial colure is the spot where the sun appears to be when it is farthest north of the equator, June 21st.
A Field Book of the Stars William Tyler Olcott 1904
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Note the star μ, which serves to point out the Winter Solstice, where the solstitial colure intersects the ecliptic.
A Field Book of the Stars William Tyler Olcott 1904
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Megres in Ursa Major; with α Andromedæ and γ Pegasi it marks the equinoctial colure.
A Field Book of the Stars William Tyler Olcott 1904
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The equator, ecliptic, and equinoctial colure intersect each other at
A Field Book of the Stars William Tyler Olcott 1904
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The position of the equinoctial colure is defined by a line connecting
A Field Book of the Stars William Tyler Olcott 1904
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The lower part of the autumnal colure was marked by the Scorpion, and the foot of the Serpent-holder pressed down the creature's head, just where the colure, the equator, and the ecliptic intersected (_see_ diagram, p. 164).
The Astronomy of the Bible An Elementary Commentary on the Astronomical References of Holy Scripture 1889
fbharjo commented on the word colure
intersection of great circles or literally docked tails
June 20, 2007