Firmament

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Firmament \Fir"ma*ment\, n. [L. firmamentum, fr. firmare to make
     firm: cf. F. firmament. See {Firm}, v. & a.]
     1. Fixed foundation; established basis. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Custom is the . . . firmament of the law. --Jer.


                                                    Taylor.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The region of the air; the sky or heavens.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst
              of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the
              waters.                               --Gen. i. 6.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament.
                                                    --Gen. i. 14.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: In Scripture, the word denotes an expanse, a wide
           extent; the great arch or expanse over out heads, in
           which are placed the atmosphere and the clouds, and in
           which the stars appear to be placed, and are really
           seen.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Old Astron.) The orb of the fixed stars; the most rmote
        of the celestial spheres.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  firmament
       n : the apparent surface of the imaginary sphere on which
           celestial bodies appear to be projected [syn: {celestial
           sphere}, {sphere}, {empyrean}, {heavens}, {vault of
           heaven}, {welkin}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  23 Moby Thesaurus words for "firmament":
     Caelus, air, azure, blue sky, caelum, canopy, canopy of heaven,
     cerulean, cope, empyrean, ether, heaven, heavens, hyaline, lift,
     lifts, sky, starry heaven, the blue, the blue serene, vault,
     vault of heaven, welkin
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Firmament
     from the Vulgate firmamentum, which is used as the translation
     of the Hebrew _raki'a_. This word means simply "expansion." It
     denotes the space or expanse like an arch appearing immediately
     above us. They who rendered _raki'a_ by firmamentum regarded it
     as a solid body. The language of Scripture is not scientific but
     popular, and hence we read of the sun rising and setting, and
     also here the use of this particular word. It is plain that it
     was used to denote solidity as well as expansion. It formed a
     division between the waters above and the waters below (Gen.
     1:7). The _raki'a_ supported the upper reservoir (Ps. 148:4). It
     was the support also of the heavenly bodies (Gen. 1:14), and is
     spoken of as having "windows" and "doors" (Gen. 7:11; Isa.
     24:18; Mal. 3:10) through which the rain and snow might descend.