aster

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin astēr (“a star, a starflower”),^[2][3][4][5] which is from Ancient Greek ἀστήρ (astḗr, “star”),^{[2][5][4][6][7]} from Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“star”).^[5][8] The plant name comes through New Latin aster,^{[4][6][9][10]} so called for the rays of its flower heads.^[5][7] It is related to star.^[4][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A star: 1603, in Florio's translation of Montaigne,^[2] about 1600 in Etymonline, in a use now obsolete.^[5][4] The OED marks this sense as ended by 1706, the Shorter Oxford by the early 18th century.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The English word began as a learned borrowing for "a star" and survived through the plant: the two senses stand side by side in Phillips's dictionary, as a star and as the herb starwort.^[11] The OED and Barnhart date the plant sense to 1706, in the edition of Phillips's New World of Words of that year,^[2][4] while Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1664 for the genus.^[10] The China aster, a related plant from China widely grown for its flowers, is recorded from the mid-18th century.^[3][9] The star image was taken up again in biology: a star-shaped structure around the centrosome of a dividing cell from 1879,^[2][3] and a star-shaped sponge spicule from 1887.^[2]

Timeline

• 1603 – a star (obsolete by 1706).^[2][4]
• 1664 – the plant genus, in Merriam-Webster Unabridged.^[10] The OED and Barnhart have 1706.^[2][4]
• mid-18th century – China aster.^[3]
• 1879 – in cell biology, a star-shaped structure around the centrosome.^[2]
• 1887 – a star-shaped spicule.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any plant of the genus Aster, of the composite family, with white, blue, purple or pink daisy-like flowers, many blooming in autumn: Bees crowded the asters along the wall.^[9][10][2]
2. The China aster, a related cultivated plant, or one of its garden forms.^[9][10][3]
3. (cell biology) A system of radiating microtubules around the centrosome before and during mitosis.^[9][10][2]
4. A star-shaped spicule.^[2]
5. (obsolete, 1603–1706) A star.^[2][3]

Word family

• aster yellows
• China aster
• golden aster
• New England aster
• New York aster

Related words

• astro-
• star
• asterisk
• asteroid
• astronomy
• astrology
• disaster

Usage notes

The suffix -aster of poetaster, which expresses incomplete resemblance, has a separate source in Latin.^[2][5][7]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray