As we celebrate a "blue moon" (the second full moon in the same month, the last being July 2, I am wondering about a word I used to know/ It means "the path of light that shines on water" (like a path that touchers the moon if it is on the horizon). There is probably a word that means the path sunlight makes on the water as well. ~ deb

I wish I could help you out, Deb, but nothing comes to mind.

Could this be an Indian saying?

Let me take this opportunity to welcome you to the Agora.

Regards

I would not know the origin but I don’t think it is an Indian word (I take you mean Native American). It was a lovely word as I remember and everytime I see that phenomenon I think of it. You know, how the path looks like you could just step on it and walk to the moon? Maybe we could think of a word that means "path of moonlight".

Welcome, divadeb.

Flickering lightly over or on a surface: lambent moonlight.

Try Roget’s Thesaurus for this list.

I also found this site while searching. No moonlight, but it is a nice effect…

gailr
When you find the word you’re looking for, please post it.

glitter path?
try this link
(The photos are of the sun, but the term could apply to the path made by the moon)

However, according to this site,
the term that has the desired definition is Suigetsu, but it’s Japanese, not English.

Cheers,
BNJTOKYO

Water Moon (sui-getsu) is the path the moonlight makes on water,
Water Mother and
Sea Moon mean jellyfish (kurage) in Japanese.

"There is nothing new under the sun."

The word you are looking for is moon-glade.  

I don’t remember much these days, but some things [s]soud[/s] sound familiar.   [hr]I found another reference to it.

‘Moonglade’: that’s a word to remember!

We already had a wee discussion on Blue Moon Lunacy. The website I got most of the information from discusses two methods of naming and reckoning full moons. One is that a second full moon in a given calendar month is a blue moon. However, this can mean that there are two blue moons in any given year, one of the traditional moon names has to be omitted and blue moons become rather frequent. The more traditional reckoning seems to be that in an astronomical season (from equinox to solstice or solstice to equinox) there are normally three full moons. When four full moons occur in an astronomical season the third is considered to be the blue moon. This might sound complicated, but it means that the Lenten Moon is always in Lent and the Egg Moon is always in the week before Easter.

I am now a resident of Wiltshire, and have been for almost three years. Many counties have a traditional name for their inhabitants, and Wiltshire folk are traditionally called moonrakers (a friend has just set up a new local radio station called Moonraker FM). My dictionaries, and Stargzer’s referrences, refer to moonrakers as small sails atop masts. However, the county is landlocked. The traditional story is of two Wiltshire men who, upon seeing a full moon reflected in the still waters of a village pond, think it is a large cheese and fetch a rake to collect it!

- Garzo.

In Swedish, I have heard mån-gata (‘moon-street/road’), first used by Strindberg in 1890.

The traditional story is of two Wiltshire men who, upon seeing a full moon reflected in the still waters of a village pond, think it is a large cheese and fetch a rake to collect it!

Someone should have told them that wheel is for their eyes only.

[quote author=gailr link=board=what;num=1091245168;start=0#9 date=09/06/04 at 10:37:27]
Someone should have told them that wheel is for their eyes only.

Ooh!  You’ve lived more than once, I assume . . .

Well, at least another day.

Garzo:

The traditional story is of two Wiltshire men who, upon seeing a full moon reflected in the still waters of a village pond, think it is a large cheese and fetch a rake to collect it!

I remember having read such a story when I was very young; I’d say it was a Grimms Brothers’ Book of Tales or something of the kind… Notwithstanding, it wouldn’t wonder me that, also here, some slow-in-the-uptake villagers might once have performed such a deed, to the rejoicement of future generations. ;D

By the way, wasn’t Moonraker the title of a James Bond film? However, I don’t remember it dealt with yatches…

I’m afraid we don’t have a term for "moonglade" in Spanish. Curious for a people so proud of its seaside and night-life.

Regards,

            WS.

[quote author=WonderingSpaniard link=board=what;num=1091245168;start=0#12 date=09/08/04 at 10:01:07]By the way, wasn’t Moonraker the title of a James Bond film? However, I don’t remember it dealt with yatches…

I think Gail and Larry have already (gold)fingered that one. I think the film was about a space-shuttle moonshot. I don’t know if the writers knew that Wiltshire folk are called moonrakers; perhaps they only knew it as the word for a small, high sail.

Moonglade is rather odd: a glade is a clearing in a wood. I can only imagine that it is linked with gladius (sword) or the archaic verb to glad.

- Garzo.

I vote for glad. A causative of OG glintan ‘shine’ is supposed to have given the Swedish word for ‘glade’, glänta. We also have glatt ‘smooth’, glätta ‘smoothen’. Most of these suggest ‘bright’, ‘shining’ and the like.

Ah, good point!

Trawling through my Old English dictionary I found glÆdan, ‘to glide’. The third person singular in the present tense should be glÆdd, the past tense should be glEd(on) and the past participle glÆden.

One could say se mOna glEd þurh þA wæteru, ‘the moon glided through the waters’.

- Garzo.