Constellacioun

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A recognizable grouping of stars visible in the night sky, often imagined to form a shape or figure and given a name
2. An arrangement of fixed stars that appear to form a meaningful pattern when viewed from Earth
3. A named assemblage of stars that seem to cluster together in the celestial sphere and create a distinctive outline

Etymology: Before it named a pattern of stars, this term meant a particular arrangement of heavenly bodies at a given moment, and astrologers believed that arrangement shaped human fortunes. The Latin "constellatio" combined "com-", meaning together, with "stella", meaning star, so its literal sense was a gathering of stars. English took it from Old French "constellation" and, in Middle English, spelled it "constellacioun", with the ending written as "-cioun" rather than the modern "-tion". The stargazing sense of a fixed group of stars came later, once the star patterns were named and mapped.