Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CA-NIC'U-LA, or CA'NI-CULE, n. [L. canicula, a little dog, from canis, a dog.]

A star in the constellation of Canis Major, called also the Dog-star, or Sirius; a star of the first magnitude, and the largest and brightest of all the fixed stars. From the rising of this heliacally, or at its emersion from the sun's rays, the ancients reckoned their dog-days.