Etymologically
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ἀστρονομία

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /as.tro.no.mí.aː/[1]
  • IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /as.tro.noˈmi.a/[1]
  • IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /as.tro.noˈmi.a/[1]

Forms

ἀστρονομία (astronomía) f (genitive ἀστρονομίᾱς); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from ἄστρον (ástron, “star”) and νομή (nomḗ, “distribution, arrangement”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Hippocratic treatise Airs, Waters, Places says that astronomy contributes not the least part to medicine.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Aristophanes' Clouds it may refer to a scientific instrument, and Plato uses it in the Symposium and the Gorgias for the study of the stars and their movements.[4][2][3] A work on the stars was ascribed to Hesiod under this title, and later commentators used it for Ptolemy's great Syntaxis.[3][2] Gregory of Nazianzus uses it for the astrology of the Chaldeans.[2]

Latin borrowed it as astronomia.[1] Modern Greek αστρονομία (astronomía) is the science of the heavenly bodies.[5]

Timeline

  • 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writings name it as useful to medicine.[2][3]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes and Plato use it.[4][3]
  • 4th century BC – Eudoxus uses it.[2]
  • 4th century AD – Gregory of Nazianzus uses it for Chaldean astrology.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. astronomy, the study of the stars and their movements.[4][3]
  2. (perhaps) An astronomical instrument.[4]
  3. (Christian writers) Astrology.[2]

References

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