instar

English

WOTD – 14 December 2012

WOTD – 14 December 2014

Etymology 1

An instar of the mayfly Cloeon dipterum

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin instar (“form, likeness”), which is of obscure origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪnstɑː/
• IPA^(key): /ˈɪnstɑɹ/
• Hyphenation: in‧star

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

instar (plural instars)

1. Any one of the several stages of postembryonic development which an arthropod undergoes, between molts, before it reaches sexual maturity.
2. An arthropod at a specified one of these stages of development.
   • 2005, Nematodes as biocontrol agents (edited by Parwinder S. Grewal, Ralf-Udo Ehlers, David I. Shapiro-Ilan), page 133:

     In A. orientalis, first and second instars were more susceptible than third instars to H. bacteriophora TF strain, […]

3. (by extension) A stage in development.
   • 1955, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita:

     We avoided Tourist Homes, country cousins of Funeral ones, old-fashioned, genteel and showerless, with elaborate dressing tables in depressingly white-and-pink little bedrooms, and photographs of the landlady’s children in all their instars.

Translations

stage in the development of arthropods

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 齡／龄 (zh) (líng), 龄 (zh) (líng), 蛻變期／蜕变期 (tuìbiànqī), 蜕变期 (tuìbiànqī), 蛻期／蜕期 (tuìqī), 蜕期 (tuìqī)

• Finnish: kehitysvaihe
• German: Larvenstadium n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: στάδιο (el) n (stádio)
• Russian: во́зраст (ru) m (vózrast)
• Spanish: estadio (es)

arthropod at a specified one of these stages

• German: Larve (de) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

by extension: development stage

• Finnish: kehitysvaihe
• German: Entwicklungsstadium (de) n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 齢, れい, rei

Etymology 2

From in- +‎ star.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈstɑː/
• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈstɑɹ/

Verb

instar (third-person singular simple present instars, present participle instarring, simple past and past participle instarred)

1. (transitive, archaic) To stud or adorn with stars or other brilliants; to star.
   • 1882, Frederick Randolph Abbe, The temple rebuilt: a poem, page 125:

     Yet mark with shining steps the humbler way;

     And, as angelic feet instar the sky,

     Drop the bright sparks along the wilderness.

   • 1893, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 72, page 507:

     Espey could distinguish through the clear darkness the fringed branches of a pine-tree clinging to the heights above and waving against the instarred sky, and below a vague moving whiteness […]

   • 1896, Mary Noailles Murfree (pseudonym Charles Egbert Craddock) In the Tennessee mountains, edition 14, page 209:

     He was dreaming, surely; or were those deep, instarred eyes really fixed upon him with that wistful gaze which he had seen only twice before?

2. (transitive) To make a star of; set as a star.

Anagrams

• S-train, Sartin, Strain, Tarins, Trains, atrins, santir, sartin, starin', strain, tairns, tarins, trains

---

French

Etymology

From Latin īnstar (“of the same weight”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃s.taʁ/
• Hyphenation: in‧star

Noun

instar

1. Only used in à l’instar de (“just like”)

Derived terms

• à l’instar de

Further reading

• “instar”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

---

Latin

Etymology

Of obscure origin.

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈin.star/, [ˈĩːs̠t̪är]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈin.star/, [ˈinst̪är]

Noun

īnstar n sg (indeclinable, no genitive)

1. image, likeness, resemblance
2. counterpart
3. worth, value
4. an equal form (of)

Declension

Not declined; used only in the nominative and accusative singular, singular only.

Case	Singular
Nominative	īnstar
Genitive	—
Dative	—
Accusative	īnstar
Ablative	—
Vocative	—

Descendants

• French: instar

References

• “instar”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “instar”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• instar in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

---

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin īnstō (“urge, insist”) whence English instant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /insˈtaɾ/ [ĩnsˈt̪aɾ]

Verb

1. (intransitive) to urge (press someone to do something soon)

   Synonyms: urgir, apretar

2. (transitive) to insist (repeat a plea)

   Synonym: insistir

Related terms

• instancia

Further reading

• Template:R:DRAE 2001