English
asteroid
Asteroid may come from Ancient Greek ἀστεροειδής ‘starlike’.
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἀστεροειδήςasteroeidḗs‘starlike’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 2007asteroid
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἀστεροειδήςasteroeidḗs‘starlike’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 2007asteroid
Earliest quotation: 2007, Hannu Karttunen et al., Fundamental Astronomy: “The orbital planes of asteroids, minor bodies that circle…”
Equivalent to aster + -oid
Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr ‘star’
Proto-Hellenic *astḗr ‘star’
Ancient Greek ἀστήρ ‘a celestial body’
Latin astēr ‘Aster amellus’
English aster
The story
Probably coined as a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀστεροειδής (asteroeidḗs, “starlike”), from ἀστήρ (astḗr, “celestial body”) + -ειδής (-eidḗs, adjective-forming suffix).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₁s- ‘to burn, glow’
constellation, stellate, 20 more
through Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr ‘star’
star, disaster, sterling, stellar, stella, 26 more
through Ancient Greek ἀστήρ ‘celestial body’
Another origin of asteroid
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἀστεροειδήςasteroeidḗs‘starlike, starry’
- Englishtodayasteroid
Today it means
noun A naturally occurring solid object, which is smaller than a planet and a dwarf planet, larger than a meteoroid and not a comet, that orbits a star and often has an irregular shape.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Ancient Greek ἀστεροειδής / asteroid