halo

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ha·lo / ˈhālō/ • n. (pl. -loes or -los) a disk or circle of light shown surrounding or above the head of a saint or holy person to represent their holiness. ∎ fig. the glory associated with an idealized person or thing: he has long since lost his halo for many ordinary Russians. ∎  a circle or ring of something resembling a halo: their frizzy haloes of hair. ∎  a circle of white or colored light around the sun, moon, or other luminous body caused by refraction through ice crystals in the atmosphere. ∎ Astron. a tenuous sphere of hot gas and old stars surrounding a spiral galaxy.• v. (-loes, -loed) [tr.] (usu. be haloed) surround with or as if with a halo.ORIGIN: mid 16th cent. (denoting a circle of light around the sun, etc.): from medieval Latin, from Latin halos, from Greek halōs ‘disk of the sun or moon.’

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