Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CLI'MATE, n. [Gr. κλιμα; whence L. clima; It. and Span. clima; Fr. climat. Qu. from Gr. κλινω, to lean or incline, or the root of climax.]

1. In geography, a part of the surface of the earth bounded by two circles parallel to the equator, and of such a breadth that the longest day in the parallel nearest the pole is half an hour longer than that nearest to the equator. The beginning of a climate is a parallel circle in which the longest day is half an hour shorter than that at the end. The climates begin at the equator, where the day is twelve hours long; and at the end of the first climate, the longest day is twelve and a half hours long, and this increase of half an hour constitutes a climate, to the polar circles; from which climates are measured by the increase of a month. – Johnson. Encyc.
2. In a popular sense, a tract of land, region, or country, differing from another in the temperature of the air; or any region or country with respect to the temperature of the air, the seasons, and their peculiar qualities, without any regard to the length of the days, or to geographical position. Thus we say, a warm or cold climate; a moist or dry climate; a happy climate; a genial climate; a mountainous climate.