Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Astrolabe
/ˈæstrəleɪb/noun
A flat brass instrument for measuring the altitude of stars, used to tell the time and find latitude.
The Greek roots
ἄστρον
ástron
star
λαμβάνω
lambánō
to take, seize
Literally: “star-taker”
The story of the word
The design traces back to Hellenistic Alexandria and probably to Hipparchus in the second century BC, but it was Islamic astronomers who perfected it, partly because it answers two practical questions at once: the hour of prayer and the direction of Mecca. Europe received it back through Arabic Spain. Chaucer wrote a manual for one in 1391, addressed to his ten-year-old son Lewis, and it is among the first technical instructions written in English.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Medieval Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
astronomyastrologyasteriskdisastersyllable
In a sentence
The museum's astrolabe still turns, and the engraved star names are Arabic.