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I'm still (after several years) searching for the noun that conveys
> the "pathway" made by the light of the moon when it is reflected on
> water (the "path" that always appears to come directly toward the
> viewer. . .). I'm wondering if you have any suggestions as to how to
> go about searching for this word. I've looked in dictionaries under
> luna- and/or lun-, as well as under lum-, and aqua-, but have come up
> empty. I suspect the word exists. Is there a suggestion you can make
> as to how I can find it? (It may be something very simple that I'm
> making complicated, but I'm beginning to obsess. . ..)
>
> Thank you,
>
> Allison Bartlett
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welcome, Allison!
what a wonderful question. I have no answer for you, but the picture in my mind will stick with me. thanks.
we may have to mold a word... no, mold is too heavy and earthy a word for such a vision. carve, no. sculpt. no. weave. no. what do glass blowers do? that's closer. I have the feeling, but not the word. someday.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Here you go, Sweetie, and welcome aBoard. I found 5 dictionaries listing this, but I thought using the 1913 Webster's would be a nice touch: moonglade . From the dict.:
ARTFL Project: Webster Dictionary, 1913
Searching for: "moonglade"
Found 1 hit(s).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moonglade (Page: 942)
Moon"glade` (?), n. The bright reflection of the moon's light on an expanse of water. [Poetic] See also: http://www.onelook.com/?loc=rescb&w=moonglade
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Welcome, Allison. Sorry, I have neither come across a specific word to describe this silvery effect, not have any great wisdom about searching that you have not probably tried, other than the general points: 1. Have you tried googling using wild card expressions? ii. Have you trawled through the etymylogical resources online (eg, http://www.onelook.com/?w=moon&ls=a ~ including looking at the PIE roots in Bartleby (eg, http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE302.html or places like this: http://www.etymonline.com/c. Have you tried skipping through some of the riches of online dictionaries, perhaps on specialist subject areas? (eg, see http://stommel.tamu.edu/~baum/hyperref.html#languages) X. Have you thought about searching poetic interest sites? An example: http://www.poeticbyway.com/glossary.htmlIf all else fails I expect a bunch of us fools can dream up a few nonce words for you to spear! edit: hah, well done Jackie! I just hope the research ideas may also be fruitful in other circumstances. Is that word known to others here, btw? edit 2: hmm, well I see one of us knows it...!! http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/mno.htm#moonglade
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>Is that word known to others here well, Mav, had you but followed through on the OneLook notion... 8-) but aside from being a clinchpoop, I found a really obscure word for this concept in an outdated seaman's glossary: http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/jkl.htm#kumatageedit[1] - I didn't see your edit 2
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http://www.scienceweb.org/astro/comet/halebopp/hbimg/HUTCHAPR1197A.JPG"Photo by Bill Hutchinson, Soldotna, Alaska. Nikon N90 20mm lens at f 2.8 30 seconds on Fuji 400 HG" The northern lights spectacle continued into the early morning hours of the 11th. Hale-Bopp is surrounded by a purple hue that descends into the lights of Kenai, Alaska. A moonglade on Cook Inlet and the constellations add even more excitement to this very 'busy' photograph."
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> kumatage
tsuwm, really, you must stop messing about with outdated seamen.
(fab pic, FS!)
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Moonglade. Ah, thanks, Jackie, for finding this lovely word that should be added to the thread about the most beautiful words. I am moonglad that you found it!
tsuwm, is kumatage really the same phenomenon as moonglade?
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the "pathway" made by the light of the moon when it is reflected on water (the "path" that always appears to come directly toward the viewer. . .)"mood glade" is absolutely a delightful term, but perhaps draillie is looking for more of a trail or "path" which gives the appearance [to the viewer] of leading somewhere -- like "the yellow brick road" to "Emerald City". "moon trail doesn't quite do it. It's not mysterious and alluring enough. The term should make us want to dance along this glimmering lunar trail, full of magical expectations, just as Dorothy and the Scarecrow and the Lion and the Tinman did along the yellow brick road. Will it lead us to the "moon of our delights"? Or only to disappointment, perhaps, if we are lucky, disappointment transmuted into the precious metal of self-knowledge, as the yellow brick road did for Dorothy and her fellow pilgrims*? How shall we know if we do not follow it? The lunar pathway beckons. That reflection is a reflection into our very souls. "Is there a suggestion you can make as to how I can find it?" [That's where you will find it, Allison. :) ] What tales will we hear on the lunar trail, I wonder? Famous Tales along the Trail * About The Canterbury Tales: Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories in a frame story, between 1387 and 1400. It is the story of a group of thirty people who travel as pilgrims to Canterbury (England). The pilgrims, who come from all layers of society, tell stories to each other to kill time while they travel to Canterbury. If we trust the General Prologue, Chaucer intended that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back. He never finished his enormous project and even the completed tales were not finally revised. Scholars are uncertain about the order of the tales. As the printing press had yet to be invented when Chaucer wrote his works, The Canterbury Tales has been passed down in several handwritten manuscripts. http://www.librarius.com/
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lunatrace wetbeams moonway ?
Naw...but here is another one from Kentucky.
I think I saw it once. It was very subtle
and I was drinking Kentucky moonshine.
"Cumberland Falls State Resort is located in the Daniel Boone National Forest. Known as the "Niagara of the South," the waterfall forms a 125-foot wide curtain that plunges 60 feet into the boulder-strewn gorge below. The mist of Cumberland Falls creates the magic of the moonbow, only visible on a clear night during a full moon. This unique phenomenon appears nowhere else in the Western Hemisphere."
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the magic of the moonbow
You have penetrated my heart with it, themilum.
You have shot me to the quick.
Such a bowman. Such a bow.
Thanks. :)
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Uh...plutarch...I am embarrassed I...uh...copied the poetic phrase from an advertising flyer for Cumberland Falls. But next time I'll do better, I promise. 
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I...uh...copied the poetic phrase from an advertising flyer for Cumberland Falls.
Yes, but an arrow only flies where it is aimed, themilum. And, it was aimed at us. :)
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Thanks drallie for starting this. Moonglade - wow Jackie! Moonbow (great idea for a screen name), perhaps we'll meet in my dreams. Thanks themillum. BTW my brother went to DBNF and said it was lovely too, but he went in daytime and mist the moonbow. http://www.mfa.org/artemis/fullrecord.asp?oid=34049
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huh? this is news to me!!!
.... as the yellow brick road did for Dorothy and her fellow pilgrims*? ...
....
....* About The Canterbury Tales:
dorothy (and toto, not doubt too) were fellow pilgrams and characters developed by chaucher in the canterbury tales?
WOW that is news to me. i can't say i have read anything but some edited excerpts of the canterbury tales, but i never remember seeing anything about dorothy, the scarecrow, the lion and the tin man.. guess i have been reading the wrong excerpts!
tell me more!
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mist the moonbowThanks for the pic - have never seen this artist's work before.
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misting the moonbow
That is what gives fancy flight, Owlbow.
Nice one. Fittingly, unquivered, and sent to us by Owlbow.
re "i can't say i have read anything but some edited excerpts of the canterbury tales"
Chaucer never lived to write the sequel, Of Troy.
In any case, we are all pilgrims in every parable. :)
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This is the same tale of the Moonspinners that is in Mary Stewart's book of the same name:
...the story of the Three Fates--the moonspinners. One story about them says that the thread they use to determine each person's lifespan is created from moonlight.
Every month on the full moon, they gather a moonbeam from the surface of the ocean and spin it into their magical thread. As they create the thread, the moon dwindles in size until no moon remains except for the empty spindle.
On that darkest night, they return the unused thread to the water, and the moon begins to grow again as the moonlight is gathered back onto the moon's spindle. http://marilynnbyerly.com/marilynnbyerly/whatsnew.htmlThe book's setting is Greece. I don't know if this is a legend of that particular country or not.
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when I featured moonglade, it was with this quote:
"Then there are the Twin Sailors. They don't live anywhere, they sail all the time, but they often come ashore to talk to me. They are a pair of jolly tars and they have seen everything in the world. . .and more than what is in the world. Do you know what happened to the youngest Twin Sailor once? He was sailing and he sailed right into a moonglade. A moonglade is the track the full moon makes on the water when it is rising from the sea, you know, teacher. Well, the youngest Twin Sailor sailed along the moonglade till he came right up to the moon, and there was a little golden door in the moon and he opened it and sailed right through. He had some wonderful adventures in the moon but it would make this letter too long to tell them." - L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea
I mention this only because it suggests a narrower view of the word; i.e., a full moon rising from the sea.
anyway, I'd had the word kumatage in my notes, but didn't mention it because I'd found it only in an online reference to the 1854 edition of The American Practical Navigator, by Nathaniel Bowditch(!). The book itself is available online, but in a newer edition, which doesn't contain kumatage.
Now, in response to moonglade, I got this reply:
"A poeticism for sure. The more scientific term for moon light shining on water: kumatage."
Well, now I had to do something. I tracked down the 1854 edition of The American Practical Navigator, and sure enough kumatage was in the glossary (but seemingly unused in the text), defined thusly: a bright appearance in the horizon, under the sun or moon, arising from the reflected light of those bodies from the small rippling waves on the surface of the water -- slightly broader here; i.e., including reflection of sun.
I wish I'd found some etymology for kumatage... but the story doesn't end here:
the worthless word for the day is: cumatic
(from Gr. kumat, wave; after L. cumatilis)
[obs.] sea-colored, blue
at last, a clue to the etymology of kumatage!
For the literalists who don't get the 'glade' in moonglade, I think this is helpful, from AHD: Middle English, perhaps from glad, bright and shining.
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Thanks for your further reflections, tsuwm - most enlightening.
But why, I wonder, given that likely derivation, does kumatage seem to say nothing about the moon or light or reflections ~ only about waves?
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I wonder also, mav.. <fade> Olive Oyl: Why is the moonlight shimmering in the water, Popeye?Popeye: sotto voce I yam what I yam... puffing on pipe and opening tin can Kumatage, Olive.http://www.math.pitt.edu/~bard/bardware/popeye/popeye1.gif
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So tsit back on the couch, tsuwm (move over, Milo!) and tell me how long you've had these issues about sailors...?
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"Oh, my GOODness!!" (to quote that little girl with the curly hair and dimples...). When Anu responded to my email by politely explaining "my limited time prevents me from doing justice to individual questions" and suggesting I post the question here, well.... I have known for several years that AWAD listmembers were creative and thoughtful folks; the depth to which some go to comment on individual words has been enormously pleasurable (not to mention educational!!). I didn't expect, however, that my little query (truly a vexing question for multiple years now) would generate this most wonderful threaded response. Thank you so very much!!
Allison Bartlett
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So stick around if you feel like it, Allison. We're nutters, but mostly harmlesss... 
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Hi Allison,
That's what you get for asking such a good question.
I've seen it many times before. I've learned much here.
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>That's what you get for asking such a good question.
>I've seen it many times before.
I too have seen (and asked) similar questions before in various contexts. As it turns out there is little language to describe effects such as the moon's and sun's reflections on water. The effect provides endless fascination for many of us, and I’ve often questioned why this is. First of all if one looks at the water one can notice a symmetrical mirror image of, say, the moon in the water with the horizon as the 'fold' between the 'real' and reflected light – this is your classic ‘moonglade’.
If one looks at the crests of waves, and little ripples gathering on a shoreline though, one recognizes endless little moons nested within the folds of water – just as each droplet on a car window holds an upside-down view of the view of outside relative to its own size. If one retreats to the distance of, say, the ISS, our moon’s reflection spans whole seas of course. Does the word ‘moonglade’ do all this justice? The idea of 'self-similarity across scales' and the scientific field called 'chaos theory' seems to have some pertinence here, but I’ll resist trying to relate anything ‘bout that. The bewildering thing though is that this 'organised chaos' (great term, hey) seems to be in practically everything we do - though this comes as little surprise to many ‘less educated’ people, I suppose.
Much can be said on the topic, but it is infused with a mystery which the moon, oceans and seas, clearly embody. Water’s staggering power and potential for destruction has, of course, been made horrifically clear in recent weeks. And when you look into another person’s eyes standing on the water’s edge, and see in them the reflection of the water's reflection, of the moon's reflection of the sun's glow, there is a sense of very personal awe and universal beauty that can make your knees weak.
"The sea isn't a place but a fact, and a mystery." Mary Oliver
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beauty that can make your knees weak
There is beauty in your thought which can make knees weak [as well], belligerentyouth.
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Mary Oliver
one of my all-time favorite writers. just to think of her is to smile, and sigh with contentment and connection.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Crispy! Good to see you! How are you?
Plutarch, if you thought that post was nice, you should see some of his poetry. I've still got a piece of it saved.
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Well said belligerentyouth. (Poetry? Could we be blessed with a sample please?)
But speaking of empty boasts...
Are we to believe that there are only 2 places in the world where moonbows can be seen?
I plan on going to the several little local waterfalls that I know of, on clear full moon nights to investigate. If nothing else, it will be a good “excuse” to be out on a nice night. I might even be favored with some owl talk.
I’ll let you know if I see or don’t see a bow. If I don’t, I guess I’ll just have to go to Kentucky.
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If one looks at the crests of waves, and little ripples gathering on a shoreline though, one recognizes endless little moons nested within the folds of water – just as each droplet on a car window holds an upside-down view of the view of outside relative to its own size. If one retreats to the distance of, say, the ISS, our moon’s reflection spans whole seas of course. Does the word ‘moonglade’ do all this justice? The idea of 'self-similarity across scales' and the scientific field called 'chaos theory' seems to have some pertinence here, but I’ll resist trying to relate anything ‘bout that. The bewildering thing though is that this 'organised chaos' (great term, hey) seems to be in practically everything we do - though this comes as little surprise to many ‘less educated’ people, I suppose.
Perhaps we can borrow a term from heraldry. Semy of indicates a pattern of lots of little identical images in an orderly pattern across the background of a coat of arms. That sounds a lot like all those little moon reflections on the waves. They become a semy of moonglade.
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In reply to:
Perhaps we can borrow a term from heraldry. Semy of indicates a pattern of lots of little identical images in an orderly pattern across the background of a coat of arms. That sounds a lot like all those little moon reflections on the waves. They become a semy of moonglade.
Ah, geez, you guys. . .this just keeps getting better and better!!
I've a question, and I don't know if it has been broached before. . .. I teach at a small, two-year college on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Could I share this discussion with my students as a way of defining what a threaded discussion is and can be? Or are these posts absolutely off limits??
(Perhaps I should have posted this question in a separate thread; if I've violated any "rules," I hope you all will forgive me. . .. Again, thank you so VERY much for these fantastic posts!!!)
Allison
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Oh, please do share with your students, Allison, and maybe some of them will want to join! We can use new blood around here...
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"We can use new blood around here," said Tom, sanguinely.
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Crispy!! Welcome home Kriegführendejugend! And such an evocative post to come home with!
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I won't make this into my personal journal, but I said that I let you know the results of my moonbow expeditions. It was too cloudy to see the full Old/Wolf/Ice moon last night, but it was the quietest night that I can remember in years. No owl, no loud moon, just one far off bark of a dog. I'll go to the falls under the full Hunger moon next month.
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tsuwm, the definition you referenced upfront ('a bright appearance in the horizon, under the sun or moon, arising from the reflected light of those bodies from the small rippling waves on the surface of the water') doesn't seem to me to be at the same as 'moonglade', or to be what Allison was looking for. Kumatage is brightness in the horizon, she's looking for brightness in the water, whcih could be quite some way from the horizon. I know I'm being pernickety, but I do think the two are separate effects. This is not to say that kumatage is anything other than a charming word, although I personally prefer moonglade for its inherent poetry. Then again, I don't think moonglade quite conveys the idea of a pathway that Allison had in her first description. No helpful words to offer myself, I'm afraid, but Broome, up on the NW coast of Australia, has a famous tourist spectacle called the 'Staircase to the Moon', which is a phrase capturing that idea of pathway at least, although decidedly unpoetic. No pics on the official tourist website, but I did find one here: http://www.mlb.broomeaccommodation.com.au/index.site.attractions.attraction.195.htmlI also note they have a night market to help tourists 'appreciate' the sight - reminds me sadly of the Japanese stringing everything in sight with pink plastic flowers, then hanging out in loud drunken parties to help everyone appreciate cherry blossom. Maybe I am missing something in just wanting to admire nature quietly on my own rather than as a mass activity? 
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I don't pretend to use or even like the word; I referred to it as an obscure word for this concept found in an outdated seaman's glossary. the language seems stilted and even a bit archaic*: a brightness in the horizon. but to me that conjures up the bright, nigh on to full size reflection of the (low in the sky) moon on the horizon which then slowly narrows towards you -- sort of a reverse vanishing point.
a brightness on the horizon.. seems as evocative of the event as moonglade.
but the word is rare, at best; and this is all rife speculation.
*maybe that should read poetic :-)
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