canopus

noun

1. Astronomy. a first-magnitude star in the constellation Carina: the second brightest star in the heavens.
2. an ancient seacoast city in Lower Egypt, 15 miles (24 km) E of Alexandria.

noun

1. the brightest star in the constellation Carina and the second brightest star in the sky. Visual magnitude: -0.7; spectral type: F0II; distance: 313 light years

noun

1. a port in ancient Egypt east of Alexandria where granite monuments have been found inscribed with the name of Rameses II and written in languages similar to those of the Rosetta stone

n.

bright southern star, 1550s, ultimately from Greek Kanopos, Kanobos perhaps from Egyptian Kahi Nub “golden earth.” The association with “weight” found in the name of the star in some northern tongues may reflect the fact that it never rises far above the horizon in those latitudes. Also the name of a town in ancient lower Egypt (famous for its temple of Serapis), hence canopic jar, canopic vase, which often held the entrails of embalmed bodies (1878).