stellify

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Archived revision by Br00pVain (talk | contribs) as of 22:31, 9 February 2022.
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

WOTD – 6 July 2010

Etymology

From Middle English stellifien, from Middle French stellifier, from Medieval Latin stellificare, itself from Latin stella (“star”) + faciō (“make, do”).

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈstɛl.ɪ.faɪ/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Verb

stellify (third-person singular simple present stellifies, present participle stellifying, simple past and past participle stellified)

  1. (transitive, mythology) To transform from an earthly body into a celestial body; to place in the sky as such
    In Classical mythology, being stellified was about the greatest posthumous honor for a mortal.
    • 1983, Douglas Brooks-Davies, The Mercurian Monarch: magical politics from Spenser to Pope, page 31:
      By the 'hissing snake' Spenser presumably means the scorpion sent by Diana that killed Orion. Like Orion it, too, was stellified. But since, as Scorpio, it rises in the east as Orion's sign sets in the west, the two were regarded as being kept forever apart, Orion perpetually avoiding in the heavens his vanquisher on earth.
  2. (transitive, astronomy) To turn into a star.
    • 1989, Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, 109: 75
      An alternative way to stellify the planet may be to not collapse Jupiter, but instead to introduce a collapsed object into its core.

Translations

mythology: to transform from an earthly body into a celestial body
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=stellify&oldid=65793761"