Celest

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Pertaining to the heavens or something celestial, often describing the sky or outer space
2. Relating to things above the earth, especially in a spiritual or astronomical sense
3. Connected with the skies or the divine realm, often invoking imagery of stars or the cosmos

Etymology: The adjective "celest" is a shortened form of "celestial," and its roots reach back to the Latin word for the sky itself. Latin "caelum" meant "sky, heavens, Heaven," and from it the Latin adjective "caelestis" was formed, meaning "heavenly." English took the idea through French, where the form "céleste" carried the same sense, and the English adjective kept that heavenly meaning: something belonging to the heavens rather than to the earth. The shorter form "celest" is the one to notice here. It stands as a clipped version of the longer adjective, with the same Latin ancestry, so its meaning is identical to "celestial." The source does not give a date for when this clipped form first appeared, so it is best understood simply as a trimmed variant of the longer word.

Synonyms: heavenly, celestial, divine

Antonyms: earthly, mundane, terrestrial