Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A constellation in the Southern Hemisphere near Sculptor and Eridanus.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A southern constellation, invented and named by Lacaille in 1763. It lies south of the western part of Eridanus, and, as its boundaries are at present drawn, contains no star of greater magnitude than the fifth.
  • noun [NL. (Castelnau, 1835).] A genus of elaterid beetles of wide distribution, found in North and South America, the West and East Indies, Africa, and Australia, of large size and a uniform brownish-black or reddish color, with a fine appressed pubescence. Seven species inhabit North America, among them F. calceatus.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun astronomy A winter constellation of the northern sky, said to resemble a furnace. It lies near the constellation Eridanus.
  • proper noun astronomy A dwarf galaxy located in the constellation Fornax.
  • proper noun Roman mythology The Roman goddess of ovens.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a faint constellation in the southern hemisphere near Cetus and Phoenix

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin fornāx, furnace, oven; see gwher- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Named by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. Originally called Fornāx Chemica, Latin for "chemical furnace".

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