Aries

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ariēs (“ram”),^[2][3][4][5] related to arietō (“to butt”).^[3] Etymonline derives it from an Indo-European root meaning "spring, jump".^[3] Merriam-Webster and Klein compare Umbrian erietu (“ram”), Ancient Greek ἔριφος (ériphos, “kid”), Old Irish heirp (“doe, female goat”) and the Armenian word for a lamb,^[4][6] and Etymonline adds Lithuanian ėrytis (“lamb”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The constellation and sign, the Ram: in Old English according to the Shorter Oxford and Etymonline, and Merriam-Webster gives before the 12th century.^[5][3][4] The OED, in an entry not fully revised, has its first quotation from Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, about 1374.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept the Latin form and the sense of the zodiacal Ram, the sign that the sun enters on about 21 March.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) gives only that sense, quoting Thomson's Spring on the sun rolling from Aries to the Bull.^[7] Astrologers then began to use it for a person born under the sign: the OED and Etymonline both date this to 1894,^[2][3] and such people have also been called Arians, from 1917.^[3] The first point of Aries is the point of the vernal equinox, which has since moved into Pisces through precession.^[5] A 2009 article in the Daily Telegraph on what police must learn gives aries as a word for heroin.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – the zodiacal Ram, in Chaucer.^[2]
• 1894 – a person born under the sign.^[2][3]
• 2009 – heroin, in drug slang.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. In astrology, the first sign of the zodiac, the Ram, associated with the period from about 21 March to 20 April.^[5][9][4]
2. A person born under this sign.^[4][9][2]
3. A small northern constellation between Pisces and Taurus, pictured as a ram.^[9][4]

Word family

• Arian
• first point of Aries

Related words

• ram
• Taurus
• Pisces

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins