WORD FOR THE DAY: URANIC

Your word for today is: uranic, adj.2

uranic, adj.²

[‘ Heavenly, celestial; astronomical. Contrasted with telluric (telluric adj.²).’]

Pronunciation: Brit. /jᵿˈranɪk/,  U.S. /jʊˈrænɪk/

Forms:  18 ouranik,   18– ouranic,   18– uranic. 

Etymology: <  classical Latin ūranus or its etymon ancient Greek οὐρανός heaven (see urano- comb. form¹) + -ic suffix. Compare post-classical Latin uranicus heavenly (from 10th cent. in British and continental sources). Compare earlier Uranian adj.¹, uranical adj., uranics n.

 Now chiefly hist.

  Heavenly, celestial; astronomical. Contrasted with telluric (telluric adj.²).

1862  T. Carlyle Hist. Friedrich II of Prussia III. xii. xii. 377 Drawing accurately ‘his Meridian Line’, on I know not what Telluric or Uranic principles.

1892 Academy 41 43/3 Another similar ouranic creature is the Rainbow, ‘a living monster’, according to the Karens of Burmah.

1962 Jrnl. Royal Asiatic Soc. Oct. 148 That the conception of Śiva had also been affected by later ouranic beliefs..does not detract from the essentially chthonic nature of Śiva in Cambodia.

1998  B. Zimmerman Herman Melville iii. 44 The link between faith and the uranic science seemed to be quite natural, quite proper.

2008  A. Guilherme tr. L. Boff Essent. Care vi. 52 The uranic (heaven) experience also generated, as did the telluric (earth) experience, a form of spirituality and of politics.

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