Pl. coronæ, rarely coronas. [L. corōna crown, chaplet or wreath, fillet or circlet of gold or other material.]
1. A small circle or disc of light (usually prismatically colored) appearing round the sun or moon. Also applied to a similar appearance opposite the sun, an ANTHELION; and more widely, to similar phenomena in optical instruments, etc.
1658. in Phillips.
1670. H. Stubbe, The Plus Ultra, 150. The reflexion of the glasses … did create a corona of several colours.
1783. Barker, in Phil. Trans., LXXIII. 245. There was a remarkable corona about the moon.
1807. T. Young, Nat. Philos. (1845), I. 366. The coloured circles or coronae sometimes seen round the sun and moon.
1823. W. Scoresby, Jrnl. Whale-Fishery, 273. A splendid display of five concentric coronæ, or prismatic circles, produced by the action of the sun on a low stratum of fog.
1849. D. P. Thomson, Introl. Meteorol., 227. In coronæ the blue prismatic colour is nearer the centre than the red; in halos this arrangement is reversed … the former arise from diffraction, the latter from refraction, of light.
2. Astron. The halo of radiating white light seen around the disc of the moon in a total eclipse of the sun; now known to belong to the sun.
1851–9. Airy, in Adm. Man. Sci. Enq., 3. If the eclipse be total attention should be paid … to the luminous corona surrounding the moon.
1879. H. W. Warren, Recr. Astron., v. 88. This region of discontinuous flame below the corona is called the chromosphere.
1890. C. A. Young, Elem. Astron., vi. § 208. The corona is proved to be a true solar appendage and not a mere optical phenomenon.
3. A circular chandelier suspended from the roof of a church; more fully corona lucis (crown of light).
1825. T. D. Fosbroke, Encycl. Antiq. (1843), I. vi. 122/2. Pendent chandeliers, called Coronæ.
1844. Ecclesiologist, May, 127. Two coronæ lucis to carry six lights.
1870. F. R. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 63. From the middle rib of the Chancel depends a corona.
attrib. 1868. Morn. Star, 26 March. This staircase is lighted … by two corona gas chandeliers.
4. Arch. A member of the cornice, above the bed-molding and below the cymatium, having a broad vertical face, usually of considerable projection; also called drip or larmier. [In Vitruvius corona is the cornice.]
1563. Shute, Archit., C j b. Coronix … you shall deuid into .4. partes. geue one part into Cimatium vnder Corona … geue likwise .2 parte vnto Corona … & the fourth part which remaineth, geue vnto Cymatium ouer Corona.
1664. Evelyn, trans. Freart’s Archit., in Addison, Spect. (1712), No. 415, ¶ 9. In a Cornice, if the Gola or Cynatium of the Corona, the Coping, the Modillions or Dentelli, make a noble Show by their graceful Projections.
1789. P. Smyth, trans. Aldrich’s Archit. (1818), 109. Reason forbids the corona to be omitted in the cornice.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 474. In the cornices of the entablatures, the coronas should not be ornamented.
1862. Smiles, Engineers, II. 43. The last pieces of the corona were set [in the Eddystone Lighthouse].
5. R. C. Ch. The tonsure of a cleric. [med.L. corona clericalis, OF. corone, Godef.]
1846–7. Maskell, Mon. Rit. (1882), II. p. ci. note. The corona of the priesthood was distinguished from that of any lower order.
6. Anat., etc. Applied to various parts of the body resembling or likened to a crown; also to the upper portion or crown of any part, as of a tooth; cf. CROWN.
spec. a. (in full corona glandis): see quot. 1753 b. Path. (in full corona veneris) ‘Term for syphilitic blotches on the forehead, which often extend around it like a crown’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.) c. Zool. The ‘test’ or body-wall of an echinoid.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1755), 46. The tokens were evident on him, blotches, scabs, and the corona.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Corona, in anatomy, is that edge of the glans of the penis where the preputium begins.
1828. Webster, Corona … 2. In anatomy, the upper surface of the molar teeth or grinders.
1872. H. A. Nicholson, Palæont., 103. The ‘corona’ is the main element of the test.
1888. Rolleston & Jackson, Anim. Life, 556. [In Echinoidea] The five ambulacral and interambulacral arcae make up the corona or test.
7. Bot. a. An appendage on the top of a seed, as the pappus on that of a dandelion or thistle. b. A crown-like appendage on the inner side of the corolla in some flowers, as the daffodil and lychnis. † c. The circle of florets surrounding the disc in a composite flower; the ‘ray.’ Obs. d. The medullary sheath, or innermost ring of woody tissue surrounding the pith in the stems of dicotyledons and gymnosperms. e. The crown of the root, the junction of root and stem.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Corona, among botanists, expresses anything growing on the head of the seed…. Sometimes the coronæ are composed of simple filaments, and sometimes they are ramose.
1770. Sir J. Hill, Constr. Timber, 57. The Corona is a ring … placed between the wood and the Pith.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp., II. (1818), 401. It [wheat] has two set of roots; one set proceeding directly from the seed, and the other from what is denominated the corona of the plant, about two inches above the first: the coronal roots do not shoot till spring-time, and collect more nutriment than the seminal roots.
1828. Webster, Corona … 3. In botany, the circumference or margin of a radiated compound flower. Encycl.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 150. Petals … arising from without a short membranous rim or corona.
1875. Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’ Bot., II. v. 471. When the corolla itself is gamopetalous, the parts of the corona also coalesce, as in Narcissus, where it is very large. Ibid., 540. The corona of hairs which serves … for the dissemination of many seeds through the air.
8. Astron. Corona australis, C. borealis: two constellations, the Southern and Northern Crown, consisting of elliptical rings of stars.
