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

A complex of astronomical telescopes and instruments located approximately 80 km to the East of La Serena, Chile, at an altitude of 2,200 m. CTIO headquarters are located in La Serena, Chile, about 480 km north of Santiago. The principal telescopes on site are the 4-m Victor M. Blanco Telescope and the 4.1-m Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope. One of the two 8-m telescopes comprising the Gemini Observatory is co-located with CTIO on the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) property in Chile, together with more than 10 other telescopes and astronomical projects.

Cerro "mountain" in Spanish; Tololo a proper name; → inter-; American, from America, → North America Nebula; → Observatory.

A prefix denoting "between, among, mutually, reciprocally."

Inter-, from L. inter (prep., adj.) "among, between," from PIE *enter "between, among" (cf. Pers. andar-, as below; Skt. antár; Gk. entera (pl.) "intestines," O.Ir. eter; O.Welsh ithr "among, between;" O.H.G. untar; O.E. under "under"), from *en- "in" + *-ter comparative suffix.

Mod.Pers. andar "in, into, within" (added to the words pedar "father," mâdar "mother," barâdar "brother," xâhar "sister," it implies "step-father, step-mother, half-brother, half-sister" respectively), from Mid.Pers. andar "in, among, concerning;" O.Pers. anatr, Av. antarə' (adv., prep., prev.), antarə (adv., prev.), "inside, intra, within, between;" also Av. antara- (adj.) "interior;" cf. Skt. ántara- "interior, adjacent to; intimate, dear;" from PIE *enter, as above.
The Av. antarə' is used with verbal stems to create abstract actions. For example, antarə'-mruyē "to prohibit," from antare- "inter-" + mruyē "to speak," from root mrū- "to speak, say." This is exactly the same pattern as L. inter-dicere "to interdict, forbid, prohibit," from inter-, as above, + dicere "to speak." The Av. antare- is used with another verb to produce the same sense: antarə-uxti "to interdict," from antarə- + uxti "to speak, to say." E. Benveniste (1975) made an interesting investigation on the origin of the "to speak inside" paradigm for the concept of interdiction. He argues that inter- derives in fact from *en-ter, the second component, while being a comparative form, introduces the notion of separation. His conclusion is that antarə-mruyē or inter-dicere mean "to pronounce inside (a group) so as to separate (or isolate somebody)." According to Benveniste, the Av. terms are the oldest forms in the Indo-European languages which convey an important piece of information about an aspect of Indo-European life/tradition in pre-historic times.