planetaryadj.n.
/ˈplanᵻt(ə)ri/, U.S. /ˈplænəˌtɛri/ A. adj.
1. † c. Heraldry. Relating to the use of the names of planets for tinctures. Obsolete. rare.
a. Of, relating to, or belonging to a planet or planets; of the nature of or resembling a planet; having a motion like that of a planet.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > planet > [adjective]
planetical?a1563
planetary1593
planetal1624
planetic1631
planetarian1652
planeted1745
planetocentric1856
preplanetary1869
protoplanetary1957
1593 T. Fale Horologiographia f. 43 Which may shew the place of the Sunne in every Signe, and likewise the planetary or vnequall houres.
1610 J. Guillim Display of Heraldrie iii. ii. 85 Of Starres some are fixed, and some are Planetary or wandring.
a1652 J. Smith Select Disc. (1660) v. ii. 131 As the Sun in the Firmament is said to walk from one Planetary house to another.
a1680 S. Butler Genuine Remains (1759) I. 11 To stretch our Victories beyond Th' Extent of planetary Ground.
1715 tr. D. Gregory Elements Astron. I. iii. §20. 425 The Inclination of any Planetary Orbit to the Plane of the Ecliptic.
1777 W. Cole Observ. & Conjectures Nature & Properties Light & Theory Comets 40 When they [sc. comets] descend into the planetary regions, they gravitate toward the sun.
1815 W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 299 (note) Lilly..was universally reputed for his supposed planetary knowledge.
1837 W. Whewell Hist. Inductive Sci. I. iii. iv. 220 The determination of the planetary orbits.
1879 A. D. T. Whitney Sights & Insights (new ed.) I. xxxii. 307 It was something planetary that beamed about her; she was an evening star in the western glow.
1960 Analog Sci. Fact & Fiction Oct. 34/1 We are coming off Mass-Time to go on planetary drive.
1981 R. Miller & W. K. Hartmann Traveller's Guide Solar Syst. 8/3 One relationship we find among major planetary bodies is a sequence of compositions that varies primarily with their different distances from the sun.
2003 New Yorker 8 Sept. 38/2 Its pictures..produced euphoria among planetary scientists in the late nineties.
b. Chiefly Astrology. Caused by a planet; of or relating to the supposed influence of a planet over persons or events.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > heavenly body > as influence on mankind > [adjective] > planet
planetary1614
1614 G. Markham 2nd Bk. Eng. Husbandman ii. iv. 64 By Thunder, Lightning, or other planetarie [printed plantarie] stroakes.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Timon of Athens (1623) iv. iii. 109 Be as a Plannetary plague, when Ioue Will o're some high-Vic'd City, hang his poyson In the sicke ayre. View more context for this quotation
1687 J. Dryden Hind & Panther iii. 99 Casting Schemes, by planetary guess.
1707 E. Ward Wooden World Dissected 92 The Captain..perceiving him, by I know not what private Planetary Marks, to be an Engine, form'd..for his Use.
1772–84 J. Cook Voy. (1790) V. 1649 They also, in some degree, maintain our old doctrine of planetary influence.
1843 W. H. Prescott Hist. Conquest Mexico I. i. iv. 109 The astrological scheme of the Aztecs was founded less on the planetary influences than on those of the arbitrary signs they had adopted for the months and days.
1861 C. W. King Antique Gems (1866) 459 Planetary rings, to which wonderful virtues were ascribed in the Middle Ages, were formed of the gems assigned to the several planets, each set in its appropriate metal.
1979 D. Edmands & A. Edmands Child Signs i. 29 We can..identify the powerful planetary focus that corresponds to her sobriety.
1992 Prediction May 29/2 You will discover..what particular rune sequences have an affinity with your sign and its planetary ruler.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > indication > insignia > heraldic devices collective > heraldic tincture > [adjective] > of tinctures: named after planets
planetary1661
1661 S. Morgan Sphere of Gentry iii. iv. 37 The planetary part of blazon doth well become persons that are above the vulgar.
2. figurative. Wandering; erratic; itinerant. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > change of direction of movement > [adjective] > moving without fixed course
vaganta1382
scatteringc1450
stragglinga1560
wandering1590
undirecteda1599
wayless1605
planetary1607
rambling?1609
exorbitant1613
exorbitating1632
random1655
unconducteda1677
devious1735
truant1791
wild1810
erratic1841
directionless1860
scrolloping1923
the mind > will > decision > irresolution or vacillation > inconstancy > [adjective] > capricious or whimsical
startfulmood?a1300
wildc1350
volage?a1366
gerfulc1374
geryc1386
wild-headeda1400
skittishc1412
gerish1430
shittle1440
shittle-witted1448
runningc1449
volageous1487
glaikit1488
fantasious1490
giggish1523
tickle or light of the sear?1530
fantastical1531
wayward1531
wantona1538
peevish1539
light-headed1549
humoral1573
unstaid1579
shittle-headed1580
toy-headed1581
fangled1587
humorous1589
choiceful1591
toyish1598
tricksy1598
skip-brain1603
capricious1605
humoursome1607
planetary1607
vertiginous1609
whimsieda1625
ingiddied1628
whimsy1637
toysome1638
cocklec1640
mercurial1647
garish1650
maggoty1650
kicksey-winseya1652
freakish1653
humourish1653
planetic1653
whimsical1653
shittle-braineda1655
freaking1663
maggoty-headed1667
maggot-pated1681
hoity-toity1690
maggotish1693
maggot-headeda1695
whimsy-headed1699
fantasque1701
crotchetly1702
quixotic1718
volatile1719
holloweda1734
conundrumical1743
flighty1768
fly-away1775
dizzy1780
whimmy1785
shy1787
whimming1787
quirky1789
notional1791
tricksome1815
vagarish1819
freakful1820
faddy1824
moodish1827
mawky1837
erratic1841
rockety1843
quirkish1848
maggoty-pated1850
crotchetya1854
freaksome1854
faddish1855
vagrom1882
fantasied1883
vagarisome1883
on-and-offish1888
tricksical1889
freaky1891
hobby-horsical1893
quirksome1896
temperamental1907
up and down1960
untogether1969
fanciful-
fantastic-
1607 Bp. J. King Serm. Oxon 5 Nov. 26 Other planetary, cursorie, moueable from place to place, as Gerard, Tesmond, Hammond, Hal, with the like.
1636 W. Sampson Vow Breaker i. i. sig. B2 Weomens minds are planetary, and amble as fast as Virginalls Iackes.
1655 T. Fuller Church-hist. Brit. ix. vii. §68 I am credibly informed he..disliked his own erratical and planetary life.
1708 Brit. Apollo 30 July–4 Aug. Such a Planetary Auditor, who thus wanders in his Approach to God..seems to prefer his Gratification to his Instruction.
1710 J. Norris Treat. Christian Prudence iii. 116 Such wandring, unprincipled, Planetary men as these.
1900 Daily News 22 Jan. 4/7 Readers..must have been struck with his planetary career over the face of the globe.
3. Of or relating to the earth; terrestrial; worldwide, global.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > planet > primary planet > earth > [adjective]
earthya1398
subcelestial1561
terrestrial1597
sublunary1609
beneatha1616
terrene1635
subsidereal1636
under-celestial1640
subsolar1648
subsolary1661
planetary1831
earthside1951
Terran1953
1831 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. May 769 The Latin language has a planetary importance; it belongs not to this land or that land, but to all lands.
1872 ‘G. Eliot’ Middlemarch II. xli. 347 To Uriel watching the progress of planetary history from the Sun, the one result would be just as much of a coincidence as the other.
a1901 F. W. H. Myers Human Personality (1903) I. §320. 96 That..response to our surroundings which forms not only the planetary but the cosmic history of all our race.
1975 Weekend Mag. (Montreal) 6 Dec. 28/3 The Greenpeace eco-activists, noted for their campaigns against nuclear testing and the slaughter of whales, are by no means alone in expounding the new planetary morality.
1996 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 4 Aug. a1 In the opinion of many experts, no other event has had the painful planetary consequences of the Afghan War.
4. Mechanics. Designating, relating to, or involving a part which rotates about its own centre or central axis, while the axis itself rotates about a point outside the part; spec. designating or involving epicyclic gearing. Cf. sun-and-planet adj. at sun n.1 Compounds 5a.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > parts of machines > mechanism > [adjective] > other
overhead1682
step by step1803
belt-tightening1873
throw-out1883
planetary1904
preselective1925
silky1935
servomechanical1946
servoing1959
switched1962
quartz-locked1977
society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > parts of machines > wheel > [adjective] > types of cogs or gears
sun-and-planet1796
spiral gearinga1877
chainless1897
planetary1904
epicyclic1906
hypoid1926
positraction1957
1904 T. H. White Petrol Motors & Motor Cars ii. 108 When the pinion A is revolved, and the internally toothed ring B is held from revolving, the planetary pinions C are caused to run around the ring B and carry the plate D with them.
1910 Cycl. Automobile Engin. I. 210 The most usual place in which the band clutch is found is in connection with a planetary transmission.
1917 T. R. Shaw Precision Grinding Machines ii. 28 Grinding machines with planetary spindles, specially adapted to the requirements of locomotive building.
1935 Sci. Monthly Nov. 475/2 To produce the rising and setting of the stars, the instrument is driven by motors about its polar axis. Speeds of 10 and 4, 3 and 1 minutes and their combinations (made possible by planetary gearing) may be used for this diurnal motion.
1969 Jane's Freight Containers 1968–9 583/3 Torque converter is standard. All drive wheels planetary drive powered.
1971 C. R. Hine Machine Tools & Processes xiv. 330 The planetary miller is unique in that the work is held stationary while the revolving cutter or cutters move in a planetary path to finish a circular surface on the work, either internally or externally.
1991 Consumers Digest Dec. 117/2 This model has a powerful 600-watt motor, variable speeds and planetary action that allow for flawless mixing.
B. n.† 1. An astrologer, an astronomer. Obsolete.† 2. A planetary body (in quot. 1819 figurative). Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > astrology > judicial astrology > [noun] > person
astrologera1382
castera1382
astronomera1387
planetist1509
horoscoper1561
figure-caster1584
figure-flinger1587
philomath1611
judiciary1618
planetary1625
astromancer1652
astromantic1652
configurator1652
horoscopist1652
planetarian1652
Babylonian1677
1625 T. Godwin Moses & Aaron iv. x. 210 As if the Originall signified properly a Planetary, or Starre-gazer.
1652 J. Gaule Πυς-μαντια 142 Now is the Planetary more malignant or malefick..than are all the Planets themselves.
a1716 R. South Serm. Several Occasions (1744) XI. 103 Which sufficiently prove the greatest pretenders to it [sc. astrology] to be indeed but mere planetaries; that is, as we may well interpret it from the force of the word, such as use to err and to be deceived.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > planet > [noun]
superior planet1577
better star1600
planet1640
planetary1819
exoplanet1992
1819 Metropolis (ed. 2) I. 221 You are a fixed star in the firmament of attraction, around which we minor planetaries revolve with delight.
3. Astronomy. A planetary nebula.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > constellation > nebula > [noun] > planetary nebula
dumb-bell nebula184.
crab1868
planetary1903
reflection nebula1936
1903 A. M. Clerke Probl. Astrophysics ii. i. 175 Spectroscopically, they [sc. Novae] simulate minute ‘planetaries’.
1930 Sci. Monthly Mar. 214/1 Condensation begins and the spectrum and appearance change as in the large nebula M 8 and in some of the planetaries.
1993 I. King in H. Dejonghe & H. J. Habing IAU Symp. 153: Galactic Bulges 10 A year ago I didn't know a thing about planetaries, but then I looked at my first ultraviolet HST image of the centre of M31, and it was full of post-asymptotic-giant-branch stars which are nuclei of planetaries.
4. Mechanics. A planetary gear; a planet wheel.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > parts of machines > wheel > [noun] > cog or gear > with axis rotating around another > planet
planet wheel1799
planet pinion1908
planet1912
planet gear1916
planetary1941
1941 Electronic Engin. 14 166/1 The planetary of the differential is connected to a gear-reduction train.
1962 D. W. Dudley Gear Handbk. iii. 21 Bevel planetaries can be made to handle a range of ratios.
1990 Peterson's 4-wheel & Off-road May 61/3 We see much the same action inside the transfer case, but the gear reduction is accomplished by the planetary.
Compounds
planetary day n. [compare French jour planétaire (1674)] Astrology a day of the week, considered in respect of its ruling planet.
ΚΠ
1674 J. Moxon Tutor to Astron. & Geogr. (ed. 3) iv. iii. 130 The first of these Planetary Hours takes its denomination from the Planetary Day; and the rest are named orderly from that Planet according to the succession of the Planetary Orbs.
1927 Jrnl. Rom. Stud. 17 135 While the Chronographus of 354 and Vettius Valens agree in making the planetary day begin at sunset, Vettius Valens gives the hour following sunset to the planet of the new day, while the Chronographus of 354 gives the hour following sunrise to that planet.
1974 Progress (Clearfield, Pa.) 4 Apr. 20/4 Capricorn... A fine planetary day! Press for satisfactory progressive action, but do not strain to get ahead of yourself.
planetary electron n. an electron which is bound to an atomic nucleus.
ΚΠ
1919 Times 1 Mar. 7/4 The nucleus consisted of positive electrons, the planetary electrons being negative.
1991 Brit. Jrnl. Philos. Sci. 42 341 The atoms of a given element have many properties in common beyond possessing the same number of planetary electrons (the defining property).
planetary ellipsoid n. Mathematics (now rare) an ellipsoid formed by revolving an ellipse about its conjugate (shorter) axis.
ΚΠ
1879 Proc. Royal Soc. 29 98 The results..are found, in the first instance, for an ellipsoid whose major axis is the axis of revolution, but a slight alteration will render them applicable also to a planetary ellipsoid.
1934 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) A. 232 227 The surfaces, α = const., constitute the family of planetary ellipsoids.
planetary engineering n. chiefly Science Fiction = terraforming n.; (also) the artificial construction of planets.
ΚΠ
1936 J. Williamson in Astounding Stories July 129/1 Planetary engineering is expensive..especially when the equipment would have to be brought so far. It would have been nearly impossible for any one to develop such a remote asteroid secretly.
1951 A. C. Clarke Explor. of Space 118 The greatest technical achievements of the next few centuries may well be in the field of what could be called ‘planetary engineering’—the reshaping of other worlds to suit human needs.
1995 Economist 23 Dec. 120/1 By that time, mankind will need to have mastered the arts of planetary engineering for the earth's sake; a new ice age is due long before then.
planetary gear n. Mechanics (a) an epicyclic gear; (b) any gearwheel whose axis revolves around another wheel; a planet wheel.
ΚΠ
1860 Sci. Amer. 23 June 406/1 Upon the same shaft are two double-beveled gears, a a, which revolve loosely thereon in opposite directions, each engaging with a small planetary gear, b, which revolves loosely upon the stud, c, which is fast to the shaft, I.
1917 E. Butler Transmission Gears iii. 66 The first use of a planetary reducing gear as a transmission between a petrol motor and the driving wheel of an automobile, was made in 1888–9 by Edward Butler on his petrol cycle.
1975 Sci. Amer. Dec. 120/2 The upper end of the larger planetary gear engages a spur gear fixed to a turntable.
1991 New Scientist 1 June 24/3 Planetary gear modules can be combined to provide exposure times ranging from 1/30th of a second to 2 minutes.
planetary hour n. [compare French heure planétaire (1611 in Cotgrave in sense ‘one twelfth of the natural day or night’)] (a) (now historical) one twelfth of the natural day or night (varying in length according to the time of the year and the latitude of the observer), esp. (in Astrology) such a period ruled by a particular planet; †(b) an auspicious time as determined from the positions of the planets.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > period > hour > [noun]
tidea900
hourc1250
timea1325
hourglass1588
planetary hour1593
clock hour1600
ghurry1638
stricken hour1820
lunar hour1862
1593 [see sense A. 1a].
1643 Sir T. Browne Religio Medici (authorized ed.) ii. §11 I was born in the Planetary hour of Saturn. View more context for this quotation
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics iii, in tr. Virgil Wks. 109 This, gather'd in the Planetary Hour, With noxious Weeds, and spell'd with Words of pow'r. View more context for this quotation
1792 E. Jerningham Stone Henge 8 From sacred flocks their earliest fleeces wound. Shorn in the due, the planetary hour, When moons propitious shone with sovereign pow'r.
1872 Atlantic Monthly June 746/2 The healing virtues of many other herbs were ascribed to the planet under whose ascendency they were to be collected... A mistake in attending to the planetary hour would render these substances entirely inert.
1992 S. P. Maran Astron. & Astrophysics Encycl. 929/1 Because these hours varied in length as the duration of the period of daylight and darkness changed with the seasons, they were referred to as temporal, unequal, or sometimes planetary hours.
planetary mill n. Metallurgy a heavy rolling mill for flattening metal in a single pass, the hot slab being forced between two large rolls each of which has a number of smaller work rolls around its circumference, the former being rotated in the direction of feed so that the latter rotate against the strip.
ΚΠ
1953 Engineer 23 Oct. 526/2 The first commercial installation of a new design of hot strip rolling mill..has been installed at the works of Ductile Planetary Mills, Ltd., of Willenhall, Staffs.
1968 R. N. Parkins Mech. Treatm. Metals iv. 213 The great advantage of the planetary mill is that it can reduce a hot slab directly to strip, thereby replacing the three or four roughing mills and the six-stand finishing mill.
1990 Minerals Engin. 3 35 The nutating mill is an adaptation of the concept of the centrifugal or planetary mill, in an arrangement which overcomes the mechanical limitations..of past experience with centrifugal mills.
planetary mixer n. a mixer or stirrer in which paddles are rotated about an axis which itself is moved in a circular path.
ΚΠ
1950 R. E. Kirk & D. F. Othmer Encycl. Chem. Technol. V. 707 Small-scale laboratory and pilot-plant models of planetary mixers..are available.
1992 Internat. Jrnl. Food Sci. & Nutrition 43 27/2 An ‘all in’ mixing procedure was used with a..planetary mixer equipped with a flat blade.
planetary nebula n. Astronomy an expanding shell of gaseous material surrounding a star which has ejected it.
ΚΠ
1785 W. Herschel in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 75 266 A very bright, planetary nebula, about half a minute in diameter, but the edges are not very well defined.
1854 D. Brewster More Worlds xi. 173 Planetary nebulae, or such as resemble planets from their discs being round or slightly oval.
1917 Science 25 May 543/2 The nuclear stars of the planetary nebulæ.
1994 Sci. Amer. Oct. 39/2 The last stages of burning are unstable: the star pushes off its outer layers to form a shell of gas called a planetary nebula.
planetary precession n. Astronomy the part of the precession of the earth's axis that is caused by the gravitational attraction of the other planets in the solar system.
ΚΠ
1863 W. Chauvenet Man. Spherical & Pract. Astron. I. xi. 604 The planetary precession does not affect the declination of stars, but changes their right ascensions, their longitudes, and their latitudes.
1971 R. H. Baker & L. W. Fredrick Astron. (ed. 9) ii. 49 Planetary precession is the effect of other planets on the plane of the equator, so that its intersection with the ecliptic shifts slowly towards the east along the celestial equator.
1992 S. P. Maran Astron. & Astrophysics Encycl. 34/2 The plane of the Earth's orbit also changes due to the gravitational effects of the planets (planetary precession).
planetary stirrer n. = planetary mixer n.
ΚΠ
1950 R. E. Kirk & D. F. Othmer Encycl. Chem. Technol. V. 705 In a planetary stirrer, the paddle rotates and at the same time the axis about which it rotates follows a circular orbit.
1997 Adhesives Age (Nexis) Oct. 16 The orbital mixing pattern ensures that the planetary stirrers cover every point within the vessel quickly.
planetary system n. [compare French système planétaire (1740)] a system comprising a star and its planets; the solar system; (also figurative) a system of correlated parts.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > planet > [noun] > planetary system
planetary system1699
chorus1701
planetarium1835
1699 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 21 337 Tho' it be impossible for us ever to see those Planets, by reason of their vast Distance, yet from the analogy that is between the Sun and Stars, we may judge of the planetary Systems about them, and of the Planets themselves too, which probably are like the planetary Bodies about the Sun.
1730 Philos. Trans. 1729–30 (Royal Soc.) 36 159 This Revolution [of Venus] he makes greatly different from those of the Earth and Mars (the two Bodies next in order of the Planetary System) both in the Position of the Axis and the Time of the Period.
1816 J. Playfair Outl. Nat. Philos. (ed. 2) II. ii. iv. 289 They proved, that the planetary system is stable.
1869 tr. F. A. Pouchet Universe (1871) 511 All the stars are, according to Kepler, only suns like ours, each of which has its planetary system.
1996 Jrnl. Brit. Astron. Assoc. 106 59/3 The discovery opens up a whole new area of research in astronomy—the study of comparative planetary systems.
planetary wave n. Meteorology a westward-moving undulation of air with a wavelength of thousands of kilometres, which forms in the troposphere and propagates into the stratosphere, transporting heat towards the poles and affecting the formation and distribution of ozone holes; cf. Rossby wave n. at Rossby n. 2.
ΚΠ
1951 J. Namias in T. F. Malone Compend. Meteorol. 803 The speed of propagation of planetary wave energy from one system to another often takes place at a rate appreciably greater than the actual speed of the air particles in any observable atmospheric layer.
2002 New Scientist 26 Oct. 89/4 The continents of the northern hemisphere drive quasi-stationary ‘planetary waves’ in the atmosphere.
planetary year n. [compare French année planétaire (1701)] Astronomy the period of revolution of a planet round a star, esp. of a planet of the solar system around the sun.
ΚΠ
1890 Cent. Dict. at Planetary Planetary years, the periods of time in which the several planets make their respective revolutions round the sun.
1958 Brit. Jrnl. Philos. Sci. 9 237 He explains the different length of the different planetary years by assuming a fixed proportion between each planet's year and its distance from the sun.
1994 Callaloo 17 253 It had taken ten planetary years before to reach a consensus to lift the self-imposed planetary isolation and send the expedition team to old Earth.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1593