halo

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a ring of light around the head of a sacred figure or a luminous circle in the sky

   A faint halo encircled the moon on the frosty night.

Simplified etymology

Halo entered English in the mid-16th century through medieval Latin from Greek halōs, referring to the disc of the sun or moon. It first denoted a circle of light around a celestial body; by the mid-17th century it was also used for the circle of light depicted around Christ or a saint.

From Latin halōs, from Ancient Greek hálōs ('disk of the sun or moon; threshing floor'), the circular shape of the threshing floor giving the sense of a ring of light.

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