Earth & SkyGreek → English
Uranography
/ˌjʊərəˈnɒɡrəfi/noun
The mapping and description of the stars and constellations.
The Greek roots
οὐρανός
ouranós
sky, heaven
γράφειν
gráphein
to write, draw
Literally: “sky drawing”
The story of the word
Star mapping was named after Οὐρανός, the sky itself and the sky god who fathered the Titans. The planet came afterwards: Bode proposed Uranus for Herschel's discovery of 1781, and Klaproth named the new metal uranium after the planet in 1789. So the word for drawing the heavens is older than the two famous things it seems to be derived from. Bayer, Hevelius and Bode all published under some form of the title.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
uraniumUranusgeographycalligraphy
In a sentence
He collects old atlases and can date a plate by its uranography alone.
Before photography, uranography was a branch of engraving as much as of astronomy.