Earth & SkyGreek → English
Sirius
/ˈsɪriəs/noun
The brightest star in the night sky, in the constellation Canis Major.
The Greek roots
Σείριος
Seírios
scorching, blazing
Literally: “the scorcher”
Follow a root:Σείριος1 word
The story of the word
Σείριος means burning, and the Greeks meant it literally. The star rose just before the sun at the height of Mediterranean summer, and they held it responsible for the heat, the fevers and the short tempers of the season; Hesiod warns that Sirius dries out heads and knees. Rome called the period dies caniculares after the constellation of the dog, which English still translates as the dog days.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
Orioncanicular
In a sentence
Sirius sits low and flickers through every colour when the air is unsteady.
Its faint white dwarf companion took astronomers decades to see.