ἄστρον

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ás.tron/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈas.tron/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈas.tron/^[1]

Forms

ᾰ̓́στρον (ástron) n (genitive ᾰ̓́στρου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a singular made secondarily from the plural ἄστρα (ástra, “the stars”), which served as the usual plural of ἀστήρ (astḗr, “star”).^[2][3][4] The NIL takes the plural to be an old collective, Proto-Indo-European *h₂stér-h₂, perhaps matched by Old Irish ser (“star”).^[5] The -στρ- is the zero grade of the stem of ἀστήρ.^[2][6]

ἀστήρ (astḗr) itself continues Proto-Hellenic *astḗr, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr (“star”).^[1][2] Cognates include Hittite ḫasterza, Old Armenian աստղ (astł), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌽𐍉 (stairnō), Tocharian B ścirye and Latin stēlla, all meaning “star”.^[2][3] Beekes thinks a connection with the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂eh₁s- (“to burn”) quite probable, while Frisk rejected it.^[2][3] A Sumerian or Babylonian origin, from the name of the goddess Ištar, has been proposed but is very improbable;^[2][3] Rosół lists it among rejected Semitic etymologies.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is found only in the plural, meaning “the stars”, as in a simile of the stars shining bright in the sky in the Iliad.^[8][9][10] Hesiod's Theogony has “the shining stars”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek the plural remained the usual form, and the stars were watched to tell the time of year and to steer by: Sophocles' Oedipus measures out the land “by the stars”, as seafarers and travellers in deserts did.^[11][9][12] The singular was used above all of Sirius, the Dog Star, from Alcaeus on;^[9][11] Hippocratic writers date events “about the star”, that is, in the dog days.^[9][10] Pindar calls the sun “a star”.^[9][13] In astronomy Plato contrasts the wandering stars (the planets) with the fixed ones, and Aristotle uses the word of the fixed stars.^[9][10] Euripides and Plato also speak of the stars as gods.^[11]

Figuratively a person or place could be called the “star” of something: the Acropolis of Corinth is the “star of Greece” in an epigram, and an inscription of the 1st–2nd century AD praises a philosopher as a “star of Socratic wisdom”.^[9][10] In the Septuagint and the New Testament the stars appear with the sun and moon, as the guide of sailors and as an image of countless numbers.^[14][15]

In medieval vernacular Greek άστρο(ν) meant a star, the morning star and the pole star, and also the constellation under which one is born, the stars as powers ruling a person's life.^[16] Modern Greek άστρο (ástro) continues it in the same senses.^[17][6] Latin borrowed it as astrum,^[1] and English forms many words with astro-.^[18]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use the plural for the stars.^[8][9]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod speaks of the shining stars.^[10]
• 7th–6th century BC – Alcaeus uses the singular of Sirius.^[9][10]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar calls the sun a star.^[9][13][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato contrasts the planets with the fixed stars.^[9][10]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament speaks of signs in the sun, moon and stars.^[15]
• 1100–1669 – Medieval vernacular Greek uses άστρο of one's birth star and fate.^[16]
• Mid-18th century – English begins to form words with astro-.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. (usually plural) The stars; the heavenly bodies.^[9][11]
2. (singular) A single star, especially Sirius; περὶ τὸ ἄστρον “about the star”, in the dog days.^[9][10]
3. (poetic) The sun.^[9][13]
4. (astronomy) A fixed star or a planet; a constellation.^[9][19]
5. A star as a deity.^[11]
6. (figurative) Someone or something brilliant, the glory of a place or a school.^[9][10]

Word family

• ἀστρολογία (astrologíā)
• ἀστρονομία (astronomía)
• ἀστρολάβος (astrolábos)

Related words

• ἀστήρ (astḗr)
• Latin astrum
• English astrology
• English astronomy
• English disaster

Usage notes

Ancient grammarians distinguished ἄστρον, a constellation made of many stars, from ἀστήρ (astḗr), a single star, but the two are often used alike.^[20][15] Ancient writers derived ἄστρον from αἴθω (aíthō, “to burn”), defining the stars by their fire.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
5. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
7. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
8. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
11. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
12. ^ Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
13. ^ a b c Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: De Gruyter
14. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
15. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
16. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
17. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
18. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
19. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
20. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.