asteriscusasteriscus

Asteriscus comes from Latin asteriscus ‘a small star, an asterisk’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr.

1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂stḗr‘star’reconstructed
2. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*astḗr‘star’reconstructed
3. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἀστήρastḗr‘star’
4. Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEἀστερίσκος‘little star’diminutive of ἀστήρ
5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEasteriscus‘a small star, an asterisk’
6. Englishtodaysame form

Earlier history uncertain.