St-elmo-s-fire Definition

St-elmo-s-fire Sentence Examples

• The name appears to be of Phoenician origin, signifying the "great" gods, and the Cabeiri seem to have been deities of the sea who protected sailors and navigation, as such often identified with the Dioscuri, the symbol of their presence being St Elmo's fire.

• St Elmo's Fire.-Luminous discharges from masts, lightning conductors, and other pointed objects are not very infrequent, especially during thunderstorms. On the Sonnblick, where the phenomenon is common, Elster and Geitel (87) have found St Elmo's fire to answer to a discharge sometimes of positive sometimes of negative electricity.

• He has ever been the patron saint of Mediterranean sailors, who regard St Elmo's fire as the visible sign of his guardianship. The phenomenon was known to the ancient Greeks, and Pliny in his Natural History states that when there were two lights sailors called them Castor and Pollux and invoked them as gods.