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

Computers: A very commonly used word that is normally excluded by computer search engines. Stopwords have very little informational content, such as: and, the, of, it, as, may, that, a, an, of, off, etc.

→ stop; → word.

Rahâ-vâž, literally "free word," from rahâ "free, set free" (O.Pers. rad- "to leave," Skt. rah-, rahati "separates, leaves," Av. razah- "isolation;" PIE *redh-) + vâž, vâžé, → word. Fekan-vâž, literally "dropped word," from fekan present stem of fekandan, afkandan "to throw, cast away;" Mid.Pers. abgandan "to throw;" O.Pers. avakan- "to throw, place on," from Proto-Iranian *kan- "to throw, place, put."

An atmospheric disturbance with strong winds accompanied by rain, snow, or other precipitation and often by thunder and lightning.
A violent disturbance or upheaval.

M.E, from O.E. storm; cf. O.S., M.L.G., M.Du., Du. storm, O.H.G., Ger. sturm.

Tufân "storm; the roaring of the sea; noise, confused hum of men or animals," Lori tufo, Laki tuf "intense shower accompanied by wind," from tufidan "to roar, raise a tumult."

A narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader; tale (Dictionary.com).

M.E. storie, from O.Fr. estorie, estoire "story, chronicle, history," from L.L. storia, shortened from L. historia "history, account, tale, story," → history.

Dâstân "story, fable, romance."

One who moves along slowly so as to remain some distance behind the person or people in front. → blue straggler.

From straggle "to wander from the proper path, to rove from one's companions," from M.E. straglen "to wander."

Veylân "wanderer, vagabond," of unknown origin, may be related to yalé "turned loose, vagabond, allowed to pasture at liberty, rover," or vel "set free."

Free from a bend, angle, or curve. → straight line.

M.E. streght, straight, from p.p. of strecchen, → stretch.

→ right.

A line without curvature or angles. A line whose → slope is → constant.

→ straight; → line.

Change of volume and/or shape of a body, or part of a body, due to an applied → stress. When a body is deformed by such a force, through compression or distension, the strain is the ratio of the dimensional change to the original or un-strained dimension. The strain may be a ratio of lengths, areas, or volumes. See also → shear.

M.E. streinen (v.), from O.Fr. estreindre "to bind tightly, clasp, squeeze," from L. stringere "to bind or draw tight," from PIE base *strenk- "tight, narrow; pull tight, twist;" cf. Gk. strangein "twist;" Lith. stregti "congeal;" O.H.G. strician "mends nets;" Ger. stramm, Du. stram "stiff."

Šepil "squeeze; fondness" (Dehxodâ) of unknown origin.

Unusual, not expected, extraordinary. → strange particle.

M.E., from O.Fr. estrange "foreign, alien," from L. extraneus "foreign, external," from extra "outside of," → extra-.

Šegeft, from Mid.Pers. škaft, škift, škuft "strange, wonderful, amazing;" Av. skapta- "wonderful."

An elementary particle created in high-energy particle collisions having a short life and a strangeness quantum number of 1. For example, sigma and xi baryons are strange particles. A strange particle is produced when a strange quark is created in a high-energy collision. → strangeness.

→ strange; the concept of "strange" arose from the observation that these particles decay rapidly, in contrast to others that do not. → particle.

A quantum number used to describe certain short-lived particles. It is defined as the number of strange anti-quarks minus the number of strange quarks in a particle. Strangeness is conserved in any strong and electromagnetic interaction, but not in weak interactions.

Strangeness, the quality or condition of being → strange.

A data center dedicated to the collection and worldwide distribution of astronomical data and related information. It is located at the Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, France. The CDS has several goals, mainly: collecting all of the useful information regarding astronomical objects in computerized form, including observational data produced by observatories on the ground or in space; upgrading these data by critical evaluations and comparisons; and distributing the results to the astronomical community. Currently the CDS services include: → SIMBAD, Aladin interactive sky atlas, and VizieR catalogues.

CDS, short for Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg.

A layered structure of sedimentary rocks in which the individual layers can be traced a considerable distance. The layers can be caused by many differences which include materials of different composition, color, grain size or orientation.

Strati-, from → stratum + -fication from L. -ficare "to do, make."

Ciné, → stratum + bandi, from bastan "to bind, shut; to contract, get, acquire; to coagulate," (Mid.Pers. bastan/vastan "to bind, shut," Av./O.Pers. band- "to bind, fetter," banda- "band, tie," Skt. bandh- "to bind, tie, fasten," PIE *bhendh- "to bind," cf. Ger. binden, E. bind, → band).

Of, relating to, or determined by → stratigraphy.

→ stratum; → -graphic.

The study of → sedimentary rock units, including their geographic extent, age, classification, characteristics and formation.

→ stratum; → -graphy; → -logy.

The second major layer of Earth's atmosphere, just above the → troposphere and below the → mesosphere, extending from about 20 km to 90 km above the Earth. It is characterized by little vertical increase in temperature.

From Fr. stratosphère, literally "sphere of layers," coined by Fr. meteorologist Léon-Philippe Teisserenc de Bort (1855-1913) from L. stratus "a spreading out" (from p.p. stem of sternere "to spread out") + -sphère (→ sphere), as in atmosphère.

Cine-sepehr, from Ciné, → stratum, + sepehr, → sphere.

Of, relating to, or characteristic of the stratosphere.

→ stratosphere; → -ic.

A partnership of NASA and the German Aerospace Center, consisting of an extensively modified Boeing 747SP aircraft carrying a reflecting telescope with an effective diameter of 2.5 m. NASA Ames Research Center manages SOFIA's science and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association and the German SOFIA Institute. SOFIA is the largest airborne observatory in the world, with a planned 20-year lifetime.

→ stratospheric; → observatory; → infrared; → astronomy.

Geophysics: A layer of the atmosphere or the sea, regarded as lying between horizontal planes.
Geology: A single bed of → sedimentary rock, generally consisting of one kind of matter representing continuous deposition.

From L. stratum "thing spread out, pavement," from neuter p.p. of sternere "to spread out, lay down, stretch out," from PIE base *ster- "to spread, extend, stretch out;" cf. Pers. gostar-, gostardan "to spread;" Av. star- "to spread," starati "spreads;" Skt. star- "to spread out, extend, strew," strnati "spreads;" Gk. stornumi "I spread out," strotos "spread, laid out;" Ger. Strahlung "radiation," from strahlen "to radiate," from Strahl "ray;" from M.H.G. strāle; from O.H.G. strāla "arrow,stripe."

Ciné "layer," from cin present stem of cidan "to collect, gather;" Mid.Pers. cyn- "to gather, collect," Parthian Mid.Pers. (+*ni-) ncyn- "to pile up, heap up together," nycnyšn "stack;" Av. ci- (caē-, caii-) "to heap up, gather;" cf. Skt. ci- "to gather, heap up," cinoti "gathers."

1) A long, narrow mark, smear, band of color, or the like.
2) Mineralogy: The color that minerals leave behind when scratched against a black or white porcelain plate. It is used to identify the mineral.

From M.E. streke, from O.E. strica; akin to O.H.G. strich "line."

Xaš "streak, scratch, stria," maybe from xarâš-, xarâšidan "to scratch;" Proto-Ir. *xrāš- "to scratch" (Cheung 2007), or a variant of xatt, → line.

In → fluid mechanics, the curve defined by the positions of all particles which have passed through a given point. In laboratory experiments, streak line may be displayed by the stream of color resulting from injection of a dye into the flow.

→ streak; → line.