Moonbeam

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈmun.bim/

Definitions

1. A ray of light from the moon that streams through darkness or across a surface
2. A shaft of lunar illumination extending through space or falling upon the earth
3. Light emanating from the moon that travels in a visible ray or beam

Etymology: Moonbeam is a plain compound: "moon" joined to "beam," and the two parts have deep roots in English. "Moon" descends from Old English "mōna," which traces back through Proto-Germanic to the Proto-Indo-European root "*mḗh₁n̥s," a word for the moon that also gave rise to the word "month," since the moon's cycle measured time. "Beam" comes from Old English "bēam," meaning a tree or a wooden post, and its original sense of a tree trunk survives in the way a ship's beam is a horizontal timber spanning its width. The leap from timber to light happened gradually. Over the centuries, "beam" came to mean a ray of light, perhaps from the image of a shaft of light resembling a long wooden piece stretching across the sky, and the sense of radiance is what gave the word its modern use. Pairing it with "moon" produces a term for the silvery shaft that falls through a window or across a field at night.

Synonyms: ray, beam, light