Etymologically
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astrologia

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [as.trɔˈɫɔ.ɡi.a][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [as.troˈlɔː.d͡ʒi.a][1]

Forms

astrologia f (genitive astrologiae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀστρολογία (astrología, “astronomy, astrology”), from ἄστρον (ástron, “star”) and -λογία (-logía, “treating of”).[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro, in his work on agriculture, says that astronomy received the Goats into the sky not far from the Bull, and Cicero uses it often.[4][5] Köbler dates Varro 116–27 BC.[6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was the science of the heavenly bodies, astronomy, which the OLD notes cannot be told apart from astrology.[2] Lewis & Short note that it was the classical word for what was later called astronomia.[5] Pliny records that Atlas, or according to others the Egyptians or Assyrians, invented it, and also uses it of a work on astronomy ascribed to Hesiod.[5][7]

Jerome is the first to use it only for astrology, the art of divination from the stars.[5][8] Isidore of Seville distinguished astronomia, the study of the revolution of the sky and the motions of the stars, from astrologia, which he said was partly natural and partly superstitious, the latter followed by the mathematici who cast horoscopes.[4] Medieval Latin used it for both astronomy and astrology, and the neuter plural astrologia for books on astrology.[9][6][10] English astrology is recorded in the late 14th century, first including scientific observation of the heavens.[11]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of astronomy.[4][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in De divinatione and De officiis.[5][6]
  • c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it of astrology alone.[5][6]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville distinguishes it from astronomy.[4][6]
  • late 14th century – English astrology is recorded.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. astronomy, the study of the heavenly bodies.[2][1]
  2. A work on astronomy.[7]
  3. (Late Latin) astrology.[5][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  9. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  10. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com