An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

Newton's theory according to which light is made up of point-like particles without any mass. It failed to explains several phenomena: simultaneous reflection and refraction at a semi-transparent boundary, interference, diffraction and polarization. Moreover, it requested that the speed of light be greater in a denser medium than in a rarer medium; this prediction is contrary to experimental results. In 1924 Louis de Broglie postulated that matter has not only a corpuscular nature but also a wave nature, and subsequent experiments confirmed de Broglie's model.

Corpuscular, adj. from → corpuscle; → theory, → light.

1) Free from error; conforming to an acknowledged or accepted standard or fact; true or accurate.
2) To remove the errors or mistakes from. → bolometric correction, → correcting plate, → correction, → corrector, → ionization correction factor, → K correction, → Malmquist correction, → Rydberg correction, → wavefront correction.

From L. correctus, p.p. of corrigere "make straight, put right," from → com- intens. prefix + regere "to guide, direct, rule," cf. Av. raz- "to direct, lead," razišta- "straightest, most correct," erezu- "correct, straight," râzayeiti "directs," O.Pers. râs- "to be right, straight, true," râsta- "staright, true," Mod.Pers. râst "right, straight, true," Skt. raj- "to direct, stretch," rjuyant- "walking straight," Gk. orektos "stretched out," Ger. recht, E. right; PIE base *reg- "right, just; to move in a straight line."

1) Aršâ, from Av. arš, ereš, erež "rightly, truly," as in arš.dâta- "rightly made," arš.manah- "whose thinking is right," arš.vacah- "whose speaking is right," erešya- "righteous, just," cf. O.Pers. arta- "law, justice," Skt. rta- "cosmic order," Gk. arti "just," artios "complete;" PIE base ar- "to fit together, join."

Note: For the sake of clarity, we avoid the Persian term dorost because its dominant meaning is "entire, complete, whole, safe, sound," although it means also "accurate, correct." Etymology: Mid.Pers. drust "straight, right, healthy," drôd "health, thriving," Parthian rwd "health, thriving," O.Pers. duruva- "firm, certain, immune," Av. drava- "healthy," Skt. dhruva- "fixed, firm, lasting," druh- "to be firm," Proto-Iranian *druua-.
2) Aršâyidan, verb from aršâ "correct."

A large glass plate placed at the entrance of a Schmidt telescope to correct for spherical aberration over the large field of view.

→ correct; → plate.

1) The act or process of correcting.
2) A quantity added to a calculated or observed value to obtain the true value.
3) Something that is substituted or proposed for what is wrong or inaccurate.

Noun form of → correct.

A thin lens-like optical piece which removes certain optical aberrations.

→ correct + → -or.

1) To place in or bring into causal or mutual relation.
2) To have a mutual or reciprocal relation.

From co-, → com-, + relate, → relation

Hambâzânidan , from ham-→ com- + bâzânidan→ relate.

General: The degree to which two or more attributes or measurements on the same group of elements show a tendency to vary together; the state or relation of being correlated.
Statistics: The strength of the linear dependence between two random variables.

From M.Fr. corrélation, from cor- "together," → com- + → relation.

Hambâzâneš , from ham-→ com- + bâzâneš→ relation.

A number between -1 and 1 which measures the degree to which two variables are linearly related.

→ correlation; → coefficient.

In radio astronomy a general term for → autocorrelator and → cross-correlator.

→ correlate + → -or.

A plot showing a summary of correlation at different periods of time.

Correlo-, from → correlation; → -gram.

To be in agreement, harmony, or conformity; to be similar or equivalent in character, quantity, origin, structure, or function.

From O.Fr. Fr. correspondre, from M.L. correspondere from cor-, → com-, + respondere "to answer," → response.

Hampatvâzidan, from ham-, → com-, + patvâz "response" [Mo'in], from Mid.Pers. patvâc "response," Av. paitivak- + -idan infinitive suffix.

The act, fact, or state of agreeing or conforming.

Verbal noun from → correspond.

The principle first put forward by N. Bohr according to which the behavior of quantum mechanical laws reduce to classical laws in the limit of large quantum numbers.

→ correspondence; → principle.

The Crow. A small but fairly conspicuous → constellation in the Southern Hemisphere lying south and west of → Virgo and east of → Crater.

L. corvus "raven," Gk. korax "raven," korone "crow," PIE base *qer-, *qor-, imitative of harsh sounds, cf. Pers. kalâq, Skt. kâkola- "raven."

Kalâq, Mid.Pers. warag, varâq "crow," Lori qelâ, Kordi qel, cf. Skt. kâkola- "raven," PIE base *qer-, *qor-, as above.

The → secant of the complement of an arc or angle; abbreviation csc. If θ is an → acute angle of a → right triangle, csc θ = → hypotenuse/(opposite side).

→ co-; → secante.

A trigonometric function giving the ratio of the side adjacent to a given angle to the hypotenuse.

Mod.L. complementi sinus, → com-; → sine.

Of or relating to the → Universe (instead of universal which may lend to confusion), to the → outer space.

Adj. from → cosmos

→ accelerating Universe.

→ cosmic; → acceleration.

NASA's satellite, designed to measure the diffuse infrared and → cosmic microwave background radiation from the early → Universe. It was launched on November 18, 1989 and carried three instruments: DIRBE (the Diffuse InfraRed Experiment), DMR (Differential Microwave Radiometers), and FIRAS (Far-InfraRed Absolute Spectrophotometer). The COBE observations showed that the cosmic microwave background spectrum matches that of a → blackbody of temperature 2.725 ± 0.002 K. COBE also found anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background at a level of a part in 100,000 (→ cosmic microwave background anisotropy). These tiny variations in the intensity of the CMB over the sky show how matter and energy was distributed when the Universe was still very young. Later, through a process still poorly understood, the early structures developed into galaxies, galaxy clusters, and the large scale structure that we see in the Universe today. Two of COBE's principal investigators, George Smoot and John Mather, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for their work on the project.

→ cosmic; → background; → explorer.

→ cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR).

→ cosmic; → background; → radiation.