Etymologically
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astrologus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [asˈtrɔ.ɫɔ.ɡʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [asˈtrɔː.lo.ɡus][1]

Forms

astrologus m (genitive astrologī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀστρολόγος (astrológos, “astronomer, astrologer”).[2][3][4][1] Köbler connects the Greek word with ἄστρον (ástron, “star, constellation”).[4] Isidore of Seville says astrologers are so called because they take auguries in the stars.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Ennius, in a tragedy that speaks of the signs of the astronomers in the sky (astrologorum signa in caelo), in the sense of an observer of the heavenly bodies.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was the usual word for an astronomer, where later Latin has astronomus:[7] so in Varro and in Cicero's On Divination.[7][8] Cicero also puns on it, calling Verres a new astrologus who reckoned not with the heavens (caelum) but with chased silver (caelatum argentum).[7]

From Cicero on it also meant one who foretells human affairs from the stars, an astrologer:[2] in a letter he groups them with augurs.[2] Juvenal and Suetonius use it in this sense.[8] Fulgentius uses it as an adjective, “astrological”, saying the first book of the Georgics is wholly so.[8][4] Glossaries explain it as mathematicus and as one who studies the stars.[5] Italian astrologo continues it.[9]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of observers of the heavens.[2][4]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it for an astronomer.[7][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for an astrologer.[2]
  • c. 500 AD – Fulgentius uses it as an adjective.[8][4]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains the name.[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An observer of the heavenly bodies, an astronomer.[2][7]
  2. One who foretells events from the stars, an astrologer.[2][7]

Adjective

  1. (Late Latin) Astrological.[8][4]

Word family

  • astrologicus

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  7. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  9. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier