astral

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin astrālis (“of the stars”),^[2][3][4][5] from Latin astrum (“star”),^[6][7][2][8] from Ancient Greek ἄστρον (ástron, “star”),^[7][2][9][5] which Klein relates to ἀστήρ (astḗr, “star”).^[9] The OED gives the Latin source simply as Latin,^[6] while Klein derives the English word through French^[9] and Dictionary.com marks a possible Middle French intermediary.^[10] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace the Greek word to Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“star”),^[7][2] and Barnhart refers it to the same source as star.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of, connected with, or coming from the stars; starry: 1605, in T. Tymme's translation of J. Du Chesne.^[6][5][3] Etymonline dates the word to about 1600,^[7] and Dictionary.com to 1595–1605.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From 1647, in Henry More's Philosophicall Poems, astral described the spirits once believed to live in the heavenly bodies, variously held to be fallen angels, the souls of the dead, or spirits born of fire.^[6][4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "starry; relating to the stars", quoting Dryden's "astral forms" in Tyrannick Love.^[11] From 1672, in Grew, it could mean star-shaped,^[6] hence the astral lamp, a lamp like the Argand lamp with its oil in a flattened ring; the noun astral for such a lamp follows in 1838.^[6][4] The occult sense, of a supersensible substance thought to pervade all space, Etymonline dates to the 1690s and says it was popularized in the late 19th century by Theosophy;^[7] the OED's first record is from Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled (1877),^[6] and the noun for an astral body follows in 1880.^[6] Weekley remarked that astral body in this spiritualist sense came later than the first volume of the OED.^[12] In biology the word has referred since 1896 to the aster, the star-shaped structure that forms in a dividing cell.^[6][13]

Timeline

• 1605 – of, connected with or coming from the stars; starry.^[6][5][3]
• 1647 – astral spirits, spirits once thought to inhabit the heavenly bodies.^[6][4]
• 1672 – star-shaped; later in astral lamp.^[6]
• 1838 – noun, an astral lamp.^[6] Merriam-Webster dates the noun to 1837.^[3]
• 1877 – in Theosophy, of a supersensible substance pervading all space.^[6] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1690s.^[7]
• 1880 – noun, an astral body.^[6]
• 1896 – in cytology, relating to an aster.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to, coming from or resembling the stars: the astral light of a clear winter night.^{[3][14][13][6]}
2. Consisting of stars; starry.^[3][6]
3. (theosophy) Of or consisting of a supersensible substance believed to make up a second, finer body for each person, which some can see as an aura.^[13][6][3]
4. (biology) Relating to the aster that forms in a dividing cell.^[13][3][14]
5. Star-shaped.^[14][6]

Noun

1. An astral body.^[3][6]
2. An astral lamp.^[3][6][4]

Word family

• astrally
• interastral
• subastral
• astral body

Related words

• astrology
• astronomer
• astronomical
• astronomy
• astrometry
• astrophysics
• star
• aster
• asterisk
• disaster
• constellation
• stellar

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin