galaxy: [14] The Greeks had a word for the ‘Milky Way’ – and indeed it was very much the same as ours. They called it galaxías, which was originally an adjective, ‘milky’, derived from the noun gála ‘milk’. English acquired it via late Latin galaxiās and Old French galuxie. (The term Milky Way, incidentally, which originated as a translation of Latin via lactea, is of roughly equal antiquity in English with galaxy. Their common inspiration is the white appearance of the myriad stars packed densely together.)
