English
Pleiades
Pleiades comes from Ancient Greek Πλειάδες.
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEΠλειάδεςPleiádes
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEPleiades
- Englishearliest quotation 1893same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEΠλειάδεςPleiádes
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEPleiades
- Englishearliest quotation 1893same form
Earliest quotation: 1893, E. W. Bullinger, Witness of the Stars: “The Pleiades and Hyades are sometimes spoken of as…”
The story
In the astronomical sense, displaced Old English seofonstierre (literally “the seven stars”).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *plew- ‘to sail, flow’
fly, flow, flew, pneumonia, fowl, plough, flue, flay, plover, 25 more
through Ancient Greek πλέω ‘to sail’
Today it means
name The "seven sisters", companions of Artemis and daughters of the Titan Atlas and the sea-nymph Pleione.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Ancient Greek Πλειάδες / Pleiades