AURORA

Wife of Orion. Aur-ora physically means "pregnant with light"; and ohra, "to conceive" or be "pregnant" is origin of the Greek word for "a wife".

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aurora. Aurora, n. the dawning light, the morning, goddess of the morning

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Au‐ro″ra (�), n.; pl. E. Auroras (�), L. (rarely used) Auroræ (�). [[L. aurora, for ausosa, akin to Gr. �, �, dawn, Skr. ushas, and E. east.]] 1. 1. The rising light of the morning; the dawn of day; the redness of the sky just before the sun rises.
2. 2. The rise, dawn, or beginning. Hawthorne.
3. 3. (Class. Myth.) The Roman personification of the dawn of day; the goddess of the morning. The poets represented her a rising out of the ocean, in a chariot, with rosy fingers dropping gentle dew.
4. 4. (Bot.) A species of crowfoot. Johnson.
5. 5. The aurora borealis or aurora australis (northern or southern lights).
Aurora borealis (�), i.e., northern daybreak; popularly called northern lights. A luminous meteoric phenomenon, visible only at night, and supposed to be of electrical origin. This species of light usually appears in streams, ascending toward the zenith from a dusky line or bank, a few degrees above the northern horizon; when reaching south beyond the zenith, it forms what is called the corona, about a spot in the heavens toward which the dipping needle points. Occasionally the aurora appears as an arch of light across the heavens from east to west. Sometimes it assumes a wavy appearance, and the streams of light are then called merry dancers. They assume a variety of colors, from a pale red or yellow to a deep red or blood color. The Aurora australis (�) is a corresponding phenomenon in the southern hemisphere, the streams of light ascending in the same manner from near the southern horizon.