Twins

Twins

1. plural of Twin

   Two Twins won a Gold Glove Award last year.

the Twins

1. (astronomy, astrology) The constellation and zodiacal sign Gemini.

   Synonym: the Heavenly Twins

   • 1668, ‘Godfridus’, The Knowledge of Things Unknown, London: G.P. for G. Sawbridge, page 19:

     Geminy, or the Twins, rule the ſhoulders, arms, and hands, & theſe three are ſigns of yᵉ ſpring.

   • 1862, [Frances Rolleston], Mazzaroth, or, The Constellations, London: Rivingtons, page 55:

     In the twins, the first holds an arrow, the second a palm-branch.

   • 1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 87:

     (The Constellation of the Twins was thought peculiarly lucky.) Perhaps after a time it was discovered that twins sometimes run in families, and in such cases really do bring fertility with them.

   • 1926 November 21, “How old is the zodiac?”, in The Woodend Star, Victoria, page 4, column 6:

     Strange, too, how the old pagan names for the constellations—the Ram, the Bull, the Twins (Castor and Pollux), the Crab, the Lion, the Virgin, the Scales, the Scorpion, the Archer, the Horned Goat, the Water-carrier, and the Fishes, have persisted all these thousands of years in spite of attempts made by philosophers of the Christian and other faiths to give them more prosaic or more religious names.

   • 1947 November 14, Mountain District Free Press and Frentree Gully News, Tecoma, Vic., page 8, column 2:

     For they are so easy to recall if you do it in associated pairs—like the Maid and the Twins, the Bull and the Rain, the Fishes and the Scales.

2. (baseball) The Minnesota Twins team.

• Swint, Wints