Definitions

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

  • noun An asteroid that orbits the sun in just over 365 days in a highly eccentric and inclined elliptical orbit that periodically brings it close to Earth. Earth has a strong gravitational influence on Cruithne, but the inclined orbit of the asteroid precludes a collision between the two bodies and also the possibility of Cruithne ever orbiting Earth as a second moon.
  • noun The Picts.

Etymologies

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

[Old Irish Cruithne, the Picts (the asteroid being named by Duncan Waldron, the Scottish amateur astronomer who discovered it in 1986), from Cruithen, a Pict; see kwer- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • Paul Wiegert's web page Astronomical objects, such as Cruithne, with strange orbits.

    Archive 2002-04-01 Ray Girvan 2002

  • Paul Wiegert's web page Astronomical objects, such as Cruithne, with strange orbits.

    Wonderful & weird science Ray Girvan 2002

  • Whence came King "Cruithne," with his seven sons, and the Picts?

    Archaeological Essays, Vol. 1 James Young Simpson 1840

  • I don't know how it plays into this but as you've probably noticed the AU uses an Irish term for the Picts themselves, Cruithne possibly with an accent, my sense of the Gaelic is extremely weak.

    Pictish female names Carla 2010

  • I mentioned the Irish name for the Picts in Irish sources in an earlier post, Picts or Cruithne or Albans: what's in a name?

    Pictish female names Carla 2010

  • Named Cruithne, the little body will orbit our Earth for at least another 5,000 years from a minimum distance of 15 million kilometers.

    Weekend SkyWatcher's Forecast – October 9-11, 2009 | Universe Today 2009

  • The Pictish origin legend says that their land was divided between the seven sons of Cruithne.

    Attacotti Carla 2009

  • The Pictish origin legend says that their land was divided between the seven sons of Cruithne.

    Archive 2009-11-01 Carla 2009

  • The Picts or Cruithne, or Albans: What's in a na...

    A Roar for Powerful Words Carla 2007

  • The Picts or Cruithne, or Albans: What's in a na...

    December recipe: Leek and turkey pie Carla 2007

Comments

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  • The name of the second moon of our planet. I would like to hear a pronunciation...

    Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3753_Cruithne

    February 7, 2012

  • Cruithne is in fact not really 'Earth's second moon' but more of a quasi-satellite, because it doesn't actually orbit the Earth.

    February 7, 2012

  • The word is pronounced "krooy-nyuh" which can also be written as "KROOee-nyuh" and in many other ways. My point is that the stress is on the first syllable, which contains both the OO and the ee sounds. The word has only two syllables, "cruith" and "ne". The stress is not on the "ee" sound. The OOee or ooy (ui) diphthong is very common in the Celtic languages.

    February 7, 2012