[L. Jūno (acc. Jūnōnem), in Latin mythology the wife of Jupiter; the goddess of marriage and child-birth.]
1. A woman resembling the goddess Juno in qualities ascribed to her; a woman of stately beauty; a jealous wife, etc.
1606. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. II. Magnificence, 858. Here, many a Iuno, many a Pallas here … Catch many a gallant Lord.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. iii. II. i. (1676), 371. It is an ordinary thing for women in such cases to scratch the faces … of such as they suspect; as Henry the seconds importune Juno did by Rosamond at Woodstock.
1641. Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 41. No envious Juno sate cross-leg’d over the nativity of any mans intellectual offspring.
1728. Pope, Dunc., II. 163. His be yon Juno of majestic size.
1859. Reade, Love me little, II. i. 40. These Junones, severe in youthful beauty.
2. Astron. Name of the third of the asteroids.
1834. Penny Cycl., II. 537/1. 1804. Harding discovers the planet Juno.
1868. Lockyer, Guillemin’s Heavens (ed. 3), 214. The third planet discovered, Juno, which was supposed to be a third fragment of the hypothetical planet.
3. In plant-names: Juno’s Rose, the white Lily (Lilium candidum); Juno’s tears, Vervain.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. ccxxxv. § 2. 581. Veruain is called in English Iunos teares.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Juno’s Rose, the Lilly.
4. Comb., as Juno-like adj. and adv.
1607. Shaks., Cor., IV. ii. 53. Come, let’s go … and lament as I do, In Anger, Iuno-like.
1896. Mrs. Croker, Village Tales, 101. Durali was tall, erect, and Juno-like.
Hence Junoesque a., resembling Juno in stately beauty.
1888. F. Hume, Mad. Midas, I. iii. A tall voluptuous-looking woman of what is called a Junoesque type.
1894. Q. Rev., Jan., 143. Her beauty was of that Junoesque type which even in Southern Italy requires time to enable it to expand to its full flower.
