constellation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English constellacioun, also constillacioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French constellation,^{[4][3][5][6][7]} and directly borrowed from Late Latin cōnstēllātiō (“a collection of stars”).^[4][3][6][8] The French word is recorded from the 13th century.^[4] The Late Latin noun is from cōnstēllātus (“starred, studded with stars”),^[6][3] formed from com- (“with, together”) and stēllātus (“covered with stars”), from stēlla (“star”),^[6][5][7] from Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“star”).^[3][5] It is related to star and stellar.^[9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In astrology, the position of the planets (then counted among the "stars") in relation to one another, supposed to influence earthly things, especially at the time of a person's birth: about 1320, in the Seven Sages of Rome.^[4][3] Barnhart dates it to about 1330.^[10][6]

Semantic evolution

The oldest sense is astrological: the position of the planets relative to the signs of the zodiac, usually on the day of one's birth, as a determiner of character.^[3] Chaucer's Wife of Bath says that she followed her inclination "By vertu of my constillacioun" (about 1386);^[3] Chaucer uses the word six times and Gower fourteen, for a planetary position or horoscope.^[11] By the late 14th century it was also used of one of the recognized star patterns handed down from antiquity:^[3] Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus (before 1398) calls Orion the most notable constellacioun because of its size,^[2] although the OED's first quotation for this sense is from Recorde in 1556.^[4] From the early 17th century it could also mean a person's character as determined by the stars, now obsolete,^[4][12] and figuratively, from about 1630, any brilliant or distinguished gathering.^[3][4] Johnson (1755) defined it first as "a cluster of fixed stars".^[13] The classical northern constellations were probably formed in prehistoric Mesopotamia, and Ptolemy codified 48 of them in the Almagest in the 2nd century; the list grew from the 16th century as Europeans charted the southern sky.^[3] In psychology the word has been used since 1922 for a group of associated ideas, a complex.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1320 – the astrological position of the planets, supposed to influence events.^[4]
• c. 1386 – Chaucer, constillacioun in the Wife of Bath's Prologue.^[3]
• before 1398 – a constellation of fixed stars, in Trevisa.^[2]
• 1556 – a group of fixed stars within an imaginary figure (OED's first quotation).^[4]
• before 1628 – character or disposition as determined by the stars (obsolete by 1651).^[4]
• before 1631 – figurative, in Donne;^[4] Etymonline dates the sense of a brilliant gathering to the 1630s.^[4][3]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as a cluster of fixed stars.^[13]
• 1922 – psychology, a group of associated ideas.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of the 88 recognized groups of stars seen from the Earth, many of them named by the ancient Greeks after animals, objects or figures of mythology, such as Orion.^[14][12][15]
2. The area of the celestial sphere that contains such a group.^[14][12][15]
3. A gathering of brilliant or famous people or things: a constellation of jazz musicians.^[14][4]
4. (astrology) The relative positions of the stars and planets, held to influence events, especially at a person's birth.^[12][15][4]
5. (psychology) A group of related ideas or personality factors; a complex.^[14][4]
6. (obsolete, 1628–1651) A person's character or disposition, as determined by the stars.^[4][12]

Word family

• constellational
• constellatory
• constellate
• subconstellation

Related words

• stellar
• stellate
• stelliform
• star
• asterism

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House