An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

1a) The aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing.
1b) One such feature or trait; characteristic.
2) A person represented in a play, film, story, etc; role. See also → personage (Dictionary.com).
3) Computers: One of a set of symbols, such as letters or numbers, that are arranged to express information; the numerical code representing such a character.

M.E. carecter "distinctive mark," from O.Fr. caractère, from L. character, from Gk. kharakter "graving tool, its mark," from kharassein "to engrave," from kharax "pointed stick."

1, 2) Serešt "nature, temperament, constitution; mixed," sereštan "to mix, mingle; knead;" serišom "glue;" Mid.Pers. srištan "to mix, knead;" cf. Av. ham-sriš- "to put together;" Skt. śres- "to cling, stick, be attached;" Proto-Ir. root *sraiš- "to put together, attach" (Cheung 2007).
Sereštâr with -âr, contraction of âvar agent noun of âvardan "to bring; to cause, produce," → format.
3) Daxšé, variants dâq "a brand, a mark burned on the skin of an animal with a hot iron," Gilaki dajé "a brand," Hamadani daj "sign placed on a heap of harvest indicating identity or ownership," Mid.Pers. daxšag "mark, sign, charactersitic; (monthly) signs (of women)", dazidan "to burn, scorch," Av. daxša- "sign, mark, defect," from dag- "to burn," dažaiti "burns," cf. Skt. dah- "to burn," dahati "burns," Gk. tephra "ash," L. favilla "glowing ashes," Lith. dagas "hot season," O.Prus. dagis "summer," P.Gmc. *dagaz, Ger. Tag, E. day; PIE *dheg^wh- "to burn."

1a ) A distinguishing feature or quality.
1b) The integer part of a → common logarithm. For example, log₁₀ (23) = 1.362, where the characteristic is 1 and the → mantissa is 0.362.
2) Pertaining to, constituting, or indicating the character or peculiar quality of a person or thing; typical; distinctive.

→ character; → -istic.

Of a pulsar, a normalized period of rotation assumed to be a good approximation to pulsar's true age.

→ characteristic; → age.

Graph representing an optical film's response to the amount of light falling on it.

→ characteristic; → curve.

Physics: An analytical relationship between a set of physical variables that determines the state of a physical system.
Math.: The equation which is solved to find a matrix's eigenvalues, also called the characteristic polynomial.

→ characteristic; → equation.

A typical or most likely mass for the formation of an astronomical object. In current star formation models, it is of order of a few tenths of a → solar mass.

→ characteristic; → mass.

The quantity kT in the → Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution law, where k is → Boltzmann's constant and T the gas temperature. See also → thermal energy.

→ characteristic; → thermal; → energy

1) The act of describing the character or qualities of someone or something.
2) The artistic representation (as in fiction or drama) of human character or motives (Merriam-Webster.com).

→ characterize; → -tion.

1) To mark or distinguish as a characteristic; be a characteristic of.
2) To describe the character or individual quality of.
3) To attribute character to (Dictionary.com).

→ character; → -ize.