An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

Meteo.: A whirling mass of water or air.
A pattern of rotation in which the rotation direction rotates by 360° along any path which surrounds the centre of the vortex.

From L. vortex, variant of vertex "whirlpool; whirlwind, an eddy of water, wind, or flame;" from stem of vertere "to turn," cognate with Pers. gardidan, as below.

Gerdšâr (on the model of gerdâb "whirlpool" and gerdbâd "whirlwind"), from gard present stem of gardidan "to turn, to change" (Mid.Pers. vartitan "to change, to turn;" Av. varət- "to turn, revolve;" cf. Skt. vrt- "to turn, roll," vartate "it turns round, rolls;" L. vertere "to turn;" O.H.G. werden "to become;" PIE base *wer- "to turn, bend") + šâr, from šâré, → fluid.

Of or pertaining to a → vortex.

Adj. from → vortex.

In fluid mechanics, a measure of the rate of rotational spin in a fluid. Mathematically, vorticity is a vector field defined as the curl of the velocity field: ω = ∇ x v.
Meteo.: The rotation of air around a vertical axis.

From L. vortic-, from → vortex + → -ity.

Gerdšârigi, from gerdšâr→ vortex + -igi, → -ity.

A speech sound that is produced as a stream of air that is not obstructed or blocked in any way by the vocal organs, but only modulated by the position of the tongue, lips, etc.

M.E., from O.Fr. vouel, from L. vocalis shortening of littera vocalis, literally "vocal letter," from  → vox "voice," cognate with Pers. âvâ, → phone, vâžé, → word.

Xodâvâ, literally "self-voice," as Ger. Selbstlaut, from xod-, → self-, + âvâ, → phone.

A hypothetical small planet proposed in the 19-th century to exist in an orbit between Mercury and the Sun. In order to explain some characteristics of Mercury's orbit, the French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier (1811-1877) hypothesized the presence of another planet, which he named Vulcan. Those particularities of Mercury's orbit were later explained by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.

L. Vulcanus in Roman mythology the blacksmith god of fire and volcanoes, a word of Etruscan origin

1) Characterized by ignorance of or lack of good breeding or taste.
2) Spoken by, or being in the language spoken by, the people generally; vernacular (Dictionary.com).

From L. vulgaris, volgaris "of or pertaining to the common people, common, vulgar, low, mean," from vulgus "the common people, multitude, crowd, throng" (cognates: Skt. varga- "a company, group, section," Pers. jarga, as below, Gk. eilein "to press, throng," Welsh gwala "sufficiency, enough").

Jargvâr, from jarg, jarga, jargé "a group of people, a ring of men or beasts;" cf. Lori, Laki jarga "group, throng," jarra "bundle;" Kurd. jerge, cerge "assembly, club;" + -vâr a suffix denoting "suiting, befitting, resembling, in the manner of, possession."

Same as → common fraction.

M.E., from L. vulgaris, from vulgus "the common people," + -aris, → -ar.

→ common; → fraction.

The Little Fox. A faint constellation in the northern hemisphere, at 20h right ascension, +25° declination, between Cygnus and Aquila. Abbreviation: Vul; Genitive: Vulpeculae.

L. Vulpecua, from vulpes "fox," cognate with Pers. rubâh, as below, + diminutive suffix -cula, variant of → -ule.

Rubâhak "little fox," from rubâh

A → red supergiant star which is one of the largest and most intrinsically luminous stars in the sky. It has a radius of about 1,420 solar radii (→ solar radius) and a luminosity of 3 × 10⁵ Lsun (→ solar luminosity). It is about 3,900 → light-years from the Earth. Excluding solar system bodies, VY CMa is the third brightest object in the sky at 10 µm. It has a large optical → reflection nebula, visible through even small telescopes, created by its prodigious mass loss (> 10^-4 Msun per year). Its initial mass is estimated to be about 25 Msun and its current mass 17 Msun. Recent observations have shown the presence of submicron → dust grains, with an average radius of ~ 0.5 μm, in the ejecta. These grains are 50 times larger than those found in the diffuse → interstellar medium (P. Scicluna et al., 2015, A&A, 584L, 10S).

V and Y, following the → variable star designation scheme; → Canis Major.

A class of → O-type stars whose spectra show He II 4686 absorption line much stronger than any other He line especially He II 4541 or He I 4471. Vz stars are thought to be young stars lying close to the → ZAMS (Walborn & Parker 1992, ApJ 399, L87). Alternatively, the Vz characteristics may be related to the wind properties rather than to the youth of the star (Martins et al., 2005, A&A 441, 735).

V indicating → main sequence, z for "zero age;" → star.