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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 5/28/2022 9:25 PM, De'vID wrote:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CA+7zAmNO58Q2q=CuE_9m7cXqWM9tabJ+SFDsOcsr4ze7ht7QQA@mail.gmail.com">The
lunar phases were not all named at once, but at different points
in history.</blockquote>
<p>The English terms <i>full moon</i> and <i>new moon</i> go way
back, to Old English and perhaps beyond. The others began to be
used in English in about the 15th century.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CA+7zAmNO58Q2q=CuE_9m7cXqWM9tabJ+SFDsOcsr4ze7ht7QQA@mail.gmail.com">Then
the "crescent moon" is named for its shape (but whether it's a
"sickle" [Sichel in German] or an "eyebrow" [眉 in Chinese] or
something else is arbitrary).</blockquote>
<p>The word <i>crescent</i> being used here isn't arbitrary. It
comes from Latin <i>luna crescens,</i> where it meant "waxing
moon." The Latin word that became <i>crescent</i> originally
meant to get bigger (compare <i>crescendo</i>), to wax. Linking
the word <i>crescent</i> to a shape came later because it was
being used of the moon. So the term <i>crescent moon</i> doesn't
come from its shape; the name of the shape comes from the waxing
moon.<br>
</p>
<p>All of these terms have histories and reasons for being the way
they are. Having diverse sources isn't arbitrariness.<br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
SuStel
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://trimboli.name">http://trimboli.name</a></pre>
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