Earth & SkyGreek → English
Phase
/feɪz/noun
A distinct stage in a sequence of changes, or the shape of the moon's lit portion at a given time.
The Greek roots
φάσις
phásis
appearance, rising of a star
Literally: “a showing”
Follow a root:φάσις3 words
The story of the word
Astronomers writing in Latin used phasis for the moon's changing face and phases for the whole set, taking it from Greek phásis, the appearance of a star at its rising. English had that narrow sense by the 1660s. The general meaning, a stage in anything at all, is nineteenth-century, and it is what lets a parent describe a child's behaviour as a phase. The underlying verb phaínein also produced phenomenon, fantasy and emphasis.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
phenomenonemphasisfantasydiaphanous
In a sentence
The moon was in its last phase, thin enough to see stars through the gap.