Earth & SkyGreek → English
Perseid
/ˈpɜrsiɪd/noun
A meteor from the August shower whose members appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus.
The Greek roots
Περσεύς
Perseús
Perseus, the hero
-ίδης
-ídēs
descendant of
Literally: “child of Perseus”
The story of the word
Meteor showers take the name of the point they seem to spray from, and these come out of Perseus in the second week of August. The ending is the old Greek patronymic: a Perseid was a descendant of the hero, and the kings of Mycenae claimed that line. Italian tradition calls the same shower the tears of Saint Lawrence, whose feast falls on 10 August, right at the peak.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
LyridLeonidOrionid
In a sentence
We drove out past the last streetlight to watch the Perseids.
A bright Perseid crossed the whole sky and left a trail hanging for a second afterwards.