Other forms: galaxies
A galaxy is a spinning island of billions of stars — we live in the Milky Way. A distant galaxy, spiral galaxy, our galaxy.
There are perhaps two trillion of them, and the space between is so vast that when two collide almost no stars hit each other. Ours is a barred spiral and we cannot see its shape from inside. Note that the Greek means milky circle, from gala, milk — so galaxy and Milky Way are the same name twice.
1noungalaxyA vast system of stars held together by gravity.
“On a clear night you can see our galaxy, the Milky Way, as a band of light.”
galaxy is a system of stars.
Greek galaxias is short for galaxias kyklos, the milky circle, from gala, milk. Lactose comes from the Latin for the same milk.
Ancient Greek
γαλαξίας — Milky Way
Latin
galaxias
Old French
galaxie
Middle English
galaxye
English, today
galaxy
Built from
From Middle English galaxye, galaxie, from Old French galaxie, from Latin galaxias, from Ancient Greek γαλαξίας (“Milky Way”), shortening of γαλαξίας κύκλος (“milky circle”), from γάλα (“milk”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA