Betelgeuse
English
Etymology
Ultimately from an alteration of the Arabic يَد الجَوْزَاء (yad al-jawzāʔ, “hand of the central one”), from يَد (yad, “hand”) + جَوْزَاء (jawzāʔ, “central one”).
Jawzā, ‘the central one’, initially referred to Gemini among the Arabs, but at some point they decided to refer to Orion by that name. During the Middle Ages the first character of the name, yā’ (ي, with two dots under it), was misread as a bā’ (ب, with one dot under it) when transliterating into Latin, and Yad al-Jauza became Bedalgeuze. This was then misinterpreted during the Renaissance as deriving from a corruption of an original Arabic form إِبْط الجَوْزَاء (ʔibṭ al-jawzāʔ, “armpit of the central one”).
Pronunciation
Proper noun
Betelgeuse
- (astronomy) A bright-red supergiant intrinsic variable star, the second brightest star in the constellation Orion; Alpha (α) Orionis. It is the tenth brightest star in the nighttime, and one of the largest stars known.
Translations
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Italian
Etymology
Ultimately from an alteration of the Arabic يَد الجَوْزَاء (yad al-jawzāʔ, “hand of the central one”), from يَد (yad, “hand”) + جَوْزَاء (jawzāʔ, “central one”).
Proper noun
Betelgeuse f
- English terms borrowed from Arabic
- English terms derived from Arabic
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English proper nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- en:Stars
- Italian terms borrowed from Arabic
- Italian terms derived from Arabic
- Italian lemmas
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- Italian feminine nouns
- it:Stars