Gienah

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A bright star in the constellation Corvus, the Crow, whose name comes from the Arabic word for wing
2. The name of a bright star in the southern constellation Corvus, also called Gamma Corvi and meaning wing in Arabic
3. A luminous star located in the constellation Corvus, traditionally associated with the wing of the celestial crow

Etymology: Gienah is the name of a star in Corvus, the crow, and its name is simply the Arabic word for "wing." The star marks the crow's wing, and Arabic star-names of this kind were usually descriptions of a star's position within a figure rather than names chosen for the star alone. The Arabic word is "janāḥ," and the English form reflects an older transliteration of it. The term is one of many star-names that came into European use through Arabic astronomy, which preserved and extended Greek star-lore during the medieval period. Europeans adopting these names kept the Arabic descriptive sense, so a star named for a bird's wing still points to the bird it belongs to.