Pictor

noun

Pic·​tor ˈpik-tər 

astronomy

: a southern constellation that is visible between the constellations of Columba and Dorado and that is represented by the figure of a painter's easel

Pulsar 437, as the scientists call it, has a stellar companion, a white dwarf, which is the size of the Earth and is visible with a telescope in the southern constellation, Pictor.

—Walter Sullivan, The New York Times, 23 Feb. 1993

Word History

First Known Use

1844, in the meaning defined above

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