Clarification About the Word ‘Moon’

Moon

In English when the word ‘moon’ is mentioned we commonly and very specifically think about the silvery grey spherical and dimpled body hanging in the sky, Very rarely do we think about the word ‘moon’ being a generic term that is synonymous with the word ‘satellite’.

Satellite

Satellite originally in the 1540’s was used in context to mean a follower or attendant to a superior person. It wasn’t until the 1610’s and as late as the 1660’s that astronomers used the word satellite to describe the moons of Jupiter. Essentially a satellite is an object that orbits another planet.

Planet

The word planet comes from the Latin word ‘planeta’ and the Greek word ‘planes’ which means wanderer. Some stars the ancient Greeks observed moved position from night to night while others stayed fixed. These stars that were given the name wanderers turned out to be mostly planets.

The Moon as a Satellite

In terms of satellites the Moon is the fifth largest in mass in the solar system. The largest satellite is Ganymede. The Moon is a very irregular satellite in the sense that it is greater in size and mass than the satellites of the major planets. The Moon is just under half the mass of Ganymede.

The Moon is the fifth largest satellite in our (Ors) solar system. Note, in some esoteric circles the name for our Solar System is Ors.

Summary

In English the word ‘moon’ has two uses. One use is in reference to the silvery grey heavenly body that orbits the Earth and the other use is to refer to any heavenly body that orbits a planet, for example the moons of Jupiter or Saturn. Even though a moon or the Moon looks very much like a planet from a distance, it is not classed as a planet but rather as a natural satellite.

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