"Charles' Wain" meaning in English

See Charles' Wain in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proper name

Forms: Charles's Wain [alternative]
Etymology: From Middle English Charlewayn, from Old English carles wǣn, apparently from a common Proto-Germanic *karlas wagnaz (cognate with forms in other Germanic languages, e.g. Swedish Karlavagnen). It seems that this common Germanic name originally meant the ‘peasant's wagon’ (the churls' wagon) in contrast to the ‘woman's wagon’ (Ursa Minor). Later it was interpreted as ‘Charles's wagon’ and associated with Charlemagne. Etymology templates: {{inh|en|enm|Charlewayn}} Middle English Charlewayn, {{inh|en|ang|carles wǣn}} Old English carles wǣn, {{inh|en|gem-pro|*karlas wagnaz}} Proto-Germanic *karlas wagnaz, {{cog|sv|Karlavagnen}} Swedish Karlavagnen Head templates: {{en-proper noun|head=Charles' Wain}} Charles' Wain
  1. (astronomy) A bright circumpolar asterism of the northern sky, said to resemble a wagon or cart. It is part of the constellation Ursa Major and includes the seven stars Dubhe, Merak, Phecda, Megrez, Alioth, Mizar, and Alkaid. Wikipedia link: Big Dipper Categories (topical): Asterisms, Constellations Synonyms: Big Dipper, Drinking Gourd [US, obsolete], Northern Ladle (english: Asia), Northern Waggoner [obsolete], Plough [Britain], Wain [Britain, obsolete] Related terms: septentrion, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor
    Sense id: en-Charles'_Wain-en-name-njW3sUi0 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Topics: astronomy, natural-sciences

Alternative forms

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-20 using wiktextract (89e900c and ea19a0a). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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