Etymologically
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ἀστρολογία

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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]

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