Vintergatan
Swedish
A photo of the "winter road".
Etymology
Compound of vinter (“winter”) + gata (“street”) + -n (“the”). Origin unknown. Possibly from that weather predictors tried to foretell the winter based on its shape. Attested since 1579. Cognate with Icelandic vetrarbraut.
Proper noun
Vintergatan ? (genitive Vintergatans)
- (astronomy) The Milky Way
- 1766, Torbern Bergman, Physisk beskrifning öfver jord-klotet, "2017", quoted in SAOB:
- Sjelfva vintergatan är idel verldar, hvilkas sken som knappast räcker til oss.
- The Milky Way itself is wholly worlds, the glow of which hardly reaches us.
- Holonyms: galax (“galaxy”), stjärnsystem (“star system”), vintergata (“galaxy”)
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References
- Vintergatan in Svensk ordbok (SO)
- Vintergatan in Nationalencyklopedin