Hello there, I hope this is the right subreddit. I'm graduating in Graphic Design this March and for my final exam I'm creating a book about universe and astronomy, mentioning also human discoveries and experiences.
I need a title for the book and the idea is to use a short word that can be meaningful or symbolic. For example I searched for how universe, sky and stars were called in different ancient cultures, but it's mostly name of Gods. My idea is to connect the modern view of the space, as pictured in the book, with an older view/concept of it.
You can also help me suggesting some words related to the general astronomy topic, or a concept of whole/infinity, in your language/culture. The ones with no translation in other languages (for example Тоска) are welcome, in my opinion they have their own beauty and cultural value and would really fit my vision of the book!
I will research the authenticity of all the chosen suggested words and the meaning of the chosen one as the title will be well explained in the inside of the book. Also, you'll be mentioned in the end credits if you like, together with this subreddit! :)
If you need more informations or are just curious about my project, please feel free to ask. Thanks everyone for your help!
Maybe you could use Spatium Sidereale? Spaceships seem to be Naves Sidereales, so it would make sense. It basically means "Starry Space". In Portuguese we use the expression Espaço Sideral so there is a precedent in romance languages.
The Morgan And Silva Furman University Lexicon states this:
space inane infinitum (Eg. D.L. 46), inane spatium cosmicum (Eg. S.L. 63), spatium cosmicum (Eg. S.L. 81), spatium infinitum (Eg. S.L. 81)
Sperae secundum fratrem J. de Pech'm
The Spheres according to brother John Pecham
This is the title of a one-page summary in BL Arundel 83 f123r There is no direct link; use the page list to get from f117 to f123v. Picture of Spheres.
Pecham draws heavily on Cicero's 'Dream of Scipio.' where the the planets each inhabit their own orbs or rather globus
Novem tibi orbibus vel potius globis connexa sunt omnia, quorum unus est caelestis, extimus, qui reliquos omnes complectitur, summus ipse deus, arcens et continens ceteros, in quo sunt infixi illi qui volvuntur stellarum cursus sempitemi.
Cicero elsewhere calls them sphaerae
habent suam sphaeram stellae inerrantes. L&S
Cicero's astronomy was developed from Plato's Timaeus. Perhaps the spheres come from Babylon via Egypt along with the character of the Seven errantes.
In any case I suggest Sphaerae (1st f. pl.) as a general term covering all the regions between Earth and Empyreon, which is beyond the outer stars.
The English word space originates from Latin word for expanse - spatium (also written spacium in Medieval Latin), and later French word espace, through the use of which English variant space was formed.
The earliest mention of space in relation to the 'outer space' is attributed to the 17th-century English poet John Milton, that used it in his epic poem Paradise Lost to much the same effect we now use it to describe 'outer space' beyond the Earth’s atmosphere too thin for aeronautical purposes (or other non-arbitrary definitions):
When I behold this goodly frame, this World,
Of Heaven and Earth consisting, and compute
Their magnitudes—this Earth, a spot, a grain,
An atom, with the Firmament compared
And all her numbered stars, that seem to roll
Spaces incomprehensible (for such
Their distance argues, and their swift return
Diurnal) merely to officiate light
Round this opacous Earth, this punctual spot,
One day and night, in all her vast survey
Useless besides—reasoning, I oft admire,
How Nature, wise and frugal could commit
Such disproportions, with superfluous hand
So many nobler bodies to create,
Greater so manifold, to this one use,
For aught appears, and on their Orbs impose
Such restless revolution day by day
Repeated, while the sedentary Earth,
That better might with far less compass move,
Served by more noble than herself, attains
Her end without least motion, and receives,
As tribute, such a sumless journey brought
Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light;
Speed, to describe whose swiftness number fails. — viii. 15-38.
Milton's description of the Universe and its celestial bodies is described in detail in The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Astronomy of Milton's 'Paradise Lost', by Thomas Orchard.
Milton is not, in fact, the first English author to use 'space' in this sense. He is antedated by Lucy Hutchinson and John Evelyn, both of whom use 'space' to translate 'spatium' in their English versions of Lucretius's De Rerum Natura. Milton probably did help the English sense to catch on, and he too was alluding to Lucretius. By the way, Paradise Lost, book 1, line 650 (which has the singular, 'space may produce new worlds') is a better example to use than the lines in book 8.
This maybe be the wrong sub, let me know and I will take it down.
Looking for cool space/astronomy/astrophysics/aviation related words or phrases which would make good song or album names.