Home » Dictionary » pluton

pluton

pluton
 n.— «If the ideas are approved at the general meeting of the IAU in Prague next week, schoolchildren will, in future, have to learn that the solar system has 12 planets: eight classical ones that dominate the system—Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus—and four in a new category called plutons. These are Pluto, its moon Charon, a spherical asteroid that sits between Mars and Jupiter called Ceres, and an object called 2003 UB313 but nicknamed Xena by American astronomers who found it.» —“Pluto survives as solar system acquires three more planets” by Alok Jha Guardian (United Kingdom) Aug. 16, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

2 comments

Further reading

Wicked Good (episode #1653)

To grok something means “to understand it completely.” The word grok comes from a language spoken on the planet Mars—well, at least according to the science fiction writer who coined the term! Also, we know the meaning of the word...

Midnight Oil (episode #1644)

What exactly is a planet? Controversy over this question led to Pluto’s redefinition, along with a brand-new English word. And: Some people now use the phrase all the things! to mean and whatnot or you know what I mean. This new sense of all...