ἀστρολογία

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /as.tro.lo.ɡí.aː/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /as.tro.loˈʝi.a/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /as.tro.loˈʝi.a/^[1]

Forms

ἀστρολογίᾱ (astrologíā) f (genitive ἀστρολογίᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from ἄστρον (ástron, “star”) and the element -λογία (-logía, “study”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Isocrates and Xenophon use it for astronomy, the study of the stars as a branch of mathematics, useful for telling the time and for navigation.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Aristotle treats it as part of mathematics and physics, and mentions a “nautical astronomy”.^[3][4] Diogenes Laertius gives a Nautical Astrology as the title of a work by Thales, and works of the same name were ascribed to Cleostratus and Aratus.^[3][4] Polybius and Plutarch use it in the same sense.^[2]

Only later did it come to mean astrology, the reading of fate from the stars, as in Cicero and Sextus Empiricus.^[3][4] Modern Greek αστρολογία (astrología) means astrology alone.^[5]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Isocrates and Xenophon use it for astronomy.^[2][4]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle treats it as part of mathematics.^[3][4]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for astronomy.^[2][4]
• 1st century BC – Cicero uses it for astrology.^[4]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Sextus Empiricus attacks astrology under this name.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. astronomy, the systematic study of the stars.^[2][3]
2. (later) astrology.^[3][4]

Related words

• ἄστρον (ástron)
• ἀστρονομία (astronomía)
• English astrology

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki