Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday April 11, 2000
firmament \FUR-muh-muhnt\ , noun:
1. The region of the air; the sky; the heavens.
2. The field or sphere of an interest or activity.
But to judge by the twinkling summer stars that filled the firmament, the dawn was still far off.
-- A. B. Yehoshua, A Journey to the End of the Millennium
Studying the firmament--the night vault that sparkles with thousands of flickering lights--is older than recorded history.
-- William E. Burrows, This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age
The glossy magazines have branded her a rising star, shooting up into the firmament of mega fashion stardom.
-- Hadley Freeman, "If I see one more black suit, I'll want to roll over and die", The Guardian, December 14, 2001
Firmament comes from Late Latin firmamentum, "firmness, the sky," from Latin firmare, "to make firm."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for firmament
