Astral

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈæstɹəl/

Definitions

1. Concerning stars or celestial phenomena, this term also alludes to a non-material or spiritual realm believed to transcend physical existence
2. Connected with stars and the cosmos beyond Earth ; referring to a plane of existence thought to be beyond the physical world
3. Associated with the distant stars and celestial bodies ; relating to an ethereal realm imagined as separate from material reality

Etymology: The most striking thing about "astral" is how little it has changed in its core job: it has described the stars for more than two thousand years. The Ancient Greek "ástron" meant simply "star," and the Romans took it as "astrum." Late Latin then built "astrālis" from that stem, meaning "of the stars," and English borrowed the adjective from there. The word's later career follows the same logic. Once something is "of the stars," it can be pictured as belonging to the sky rather than to the earth, and that idea opened the door to the spiritual sense. A "astral" realm came to mean a non-material plane beyond ordinary physical existence, the sort of place a soul or spirit might inhabit. The jump is a short one, since the heavens were long imagined as the home of the divine, and the adjective simply followed that picture.

Synonyms: stellar, celestial

Antonyms: terrestrial