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

Suffix forming adjectives with meanings "capable of, susceptible of, worthy of, tending to."

M.E., from O.Fr., from L. -abilis, -ibilis, from -a- and -i- + -bilis.

The capability suffix -i is added to the infinitive form.
-pazir "receiving, accepting, admitting, having," from paziroftan "to receive, accept, admit," Mid.Pers. padiriftan, padir- "to receive, accept," from Proto-Iranian *pati- + *grab- "to grab, seize, take," Av./O.Pers. grab- "to take, seize;" cp. Skt. grah-, grabh- "to seize, take," graha "seizing, holding, perceiving," M.L.G. grabben "to grab," from P.Gmc. *grab (E. grab); PIE *ghrebh- "to seize."

A prefix with several meanings: "characterized by," "of the nature of," "belonging to or connected with a division of animals characterized by or of the nature of," "belonging to or connected with a family of plants of the nature of."

From L. -aceus.

-âsâ a suffix denoting "resemblance; nature; relation," from Mid.Pers. suffix -ihâ forming adverbs.

1) Adjective suffix denoting "of, relating to, or characterized by;" e.g. astronomical, material, equal, final, general, directional, fictional, etc. Variant → -ar.
2) Noun suffix, used with verbs (refusal, rehearsal, etc.) or nouns (canal, etc.).

1) M.E., from O.Fr., from L. -alis
2) M.E. -aille, from O.Fr., from L. -alia, from neuter pl. of -alis.

1) -i, contraction of -ik, → -ic; -var Mid.Pers. -uwar, -war, from O.Pers. -bara, from bar- "to bear, carry," variant -ur; -mand from Mid.Pers. -omand, O.Pers./Av. -mant, cf. Skt. -mant.
2) In Persian, -âl, a suffix of attributes and similarity, is used to form adjectives that often become nouns. Sometimes it occurs as -al or -el and may be confounded with -ul and -ulé, → -ule. Its link with L. -alis is not established. Some examples:
dombâl "rear part; continuation; tail," from domb "tail" + -âl,
cangâl "fork; claws," from cang "claw; hook" + -âl,
pušâl "tinder, rubbish," from puc, puk "hollow" + -âl,
ravâl "trend," from row present stem of raftan "to go" + -âl,
xoškâl "dried twigs and leaves of a green tree," from xošk "dry" + -âl,
tofâl "remains of anything squeezed," from tof "saliva" + -âl,
kupâl "club," from kup-, kub(idan) "to beat, strike, pound" + -âl,
gowdâl "hole, pit, low place," from gowd "deep" + -âl,
tâval "blister," from tâv-, tâb-, tâbidan "to become warm, burn," + -al.
kandâl "pit (Qâeni), watercourse, canal (Kordi)," from kand stem of kandan "to dig, pluck, extract" + -âl,
mərdâl (Tâleši Xošabar) "dead," from mərd "to die" + -âl,
capâl "left-handed," from cap "left" + -âl,
gaštal (Laki) "wanderer, vagabond," from gaštan "to turn, return, change, look about" + -al,
kašal (Torbat Heydariye-yi) "elongated," from kašidan "to draw, extend" + -al,
gerdel (Hamadâni, Lori, Qomi) "round, loop," from gerd "round" + -el,
peškel "orbicular dung of sheep," from pešk "dung" + -el.

Suffix used to form nouns either from adjectives or from verbs; it expresses 1) state or condition (brilliance, absorptance); 2) action (e.g. continuance).

M.E., from O.Fr., from L. -antia.

-Egi, -igi, -âi, -âyi, -eš Pers. noun suffixes denoting state, condition.

Same as → -ent.

A suffix of adjectives, meaning "of, relating to, or resembling," as in polar "of or relating to": molecular, "being": spectacular.

M.E., from O.Fr. -er, from L. -aris, variant of -alis, → -al.

An adjective and noun suffix denoting thing or person belonging to or connected with.

From L. -arius, -aria, -arium "connected with, pertaining to; the man engaged in."

-i, Mid.Pers. -ig, -ik, → -ics.

1) A suffix used in chemical terminology, in particular to indicate a salt of an acid ending in -ic and not beginning with → hydro-, such as silicate, nitrate, sulfate.
2) Verbal suffix denoting "to act upon" (in a specific way), "to cause to become."

1) From M.E. -aten, from L. -atus p.p. ending of 1st conjugable verbs.
2) Very likely from N.L. expressions as plumbum acetatum salt produced by the action of acetic acid on lead.

1) Logic: Relating to or involving inductive reasoning from particular facts or effects to a general principle (dictionary.com).
2) Logic: Derived from or requiring evidence for its validation or support; empirical; open to revision (dictionary.com). → a priori.

L., literally "from what comes after," from posterior "after, later, behind," comparative of posterus "coming after, subsequent," from post "after," → post-.

Afdom "the last," Dehxodâ: afdom "last, end;" Mid.Pers. abdom, apdom; from Proto-Ir. *apatama- superlative of *apa- "away from, from;" cf. Av. apəma- "the last, the most distant;" Skt. apamá-.

1) Logic: Relating to or involving deductive reasoning from a general principle to the expected facts or effects (dictionary.com).
2) Logic: Known to be true independently of or in advance of experience of the subject matter; requiring no evidence for its validation or support (dictionary.com). → a posteriori.

L., literally "from what comes first," from priori, ablative of prior "former, previous, first," → per-.

Partom "the first," Dehxodâ: fardom; Mid.Pers. fradom, fratom, pratom; O.Pers. fratama-; Av. fratəma- (Skt. prathama- "earliest, initial, first") superlative of fra- "before, forward, forth," cognate with Gk. and L. → pro-.

One of → Saturn's rings, lying beyond the → B ring at 122,170 km from the center of Saturn, with a width of 14,600 km.

→ ring.

A star whose spectrum shows strong hydrogen → Balmer lines accompanied by many faint to moderately strong metallic lines. In contrast to B and O stars, the lines of He I and He II are absent. Their surface temperature ranges from 7,500 to 10,000 K. The main metallic lines seen in A-type stars are those of Fe I and Fe II, Cr I and II, Ti I and II, and account for about two-thirds of all lines. Some famous examples of A star are: → Sirius; → Deneb, → Altair, and → Vega. Also known as A-type star.

A, letter of alphabet used in the → Harvard classification; → type; → star.

Prefix meaning "not."

From Gk. a-, an- "not," compare with O.Pers./Av. a-, an- "not, without," Skt. a-, an- "not," L. in-, a variant of PIE *ne- "not".

A-, an-, from O.Pers./Av. negation prefix appearing before consonants and vowels respectively. A couple of examples in Mod.Pers.: amordâd "immortality, name of the fifth month in the Iranian calendar," anušé; "fortunate, happy," anirani "non Iranian," âhu "vice, defect," âsoqdé "unburnt, half-burnt wood."
Bi- privative prefix, from Mid.Pers. abi-, O.Pers. *apaiy-, Av. apa-.
Nâ- negation prefix "not, no," Mid.Pers. ne, O.Pers. naiy, Av. na-, (particle of negation noit), Skt. na-, (ned), Gk. né- "not," L. ne-, in-, un-, PIE *ne-.

Same as → A star.

A, letter of alphabet used in the → Harvard classification; → type; → star.

→ 1I/'Oumuamua.

→ asteroid designation.

A → thought experiment conceived by Einstein (1879-1955) at the age of sixteen in the Swiss town of Aarau where he attended the Argovian cantonal school. If an → observer moved at the → speed of light, pursuing a → beam of light, would he → observe such a beam of light as a spatially oscillatory → electromagnetic field at rest? The answer came some ten years later from Einstein himself by his theory of → special relativity. Accordingly, the speed of light is constant for all observers and no observer can move at the light velocity.

Aarau, the Swiss town, the capital of the northern Swiss canton of Aargau; → paradox.

A → quadruple system of stars consisting of two close pairs, AB Dor A / AB Dor C and AB Dor Ba / AB Dor Bb, separated by about 9 arcseconds. The brightest star of the system, AB Dor A, is a → pre-main sequence star of → spectral type K1, with strong emission at all wavelengths, from radio to X-rays. The companion of this star, i.e. component C, lying 0.185 arcseconds apart, is a very low-mass star of 0.090 → solar masses with a spectral type M 5.5 (Boccaletti et al. 2008, A&A 482, 939 and references therein).

A, a, B, b, and C designating letters of alphabet; → Dorado.

"From the beginning," as opposed to in medias res "starting in the middle of the story." In physics and chemistry "from first principles;" → ab initio calculation.

L. "from the beginning," from ab "from," → ab- + initio, ablative of initium "a beginning, an entrance," from inire "to go into, begin," from in- "into, in" + ire "to go" (cf. Gk. ienai "to go," Skt. eti "goes," O.Pers. aitiy "goes," Av. aeiti "goes," Mod.Pers. âyad "comes," PIE *ei- "to go, to walk").

Hac bon, from Mid.Pers. hac "from" (O.Pers. hacā "from," Av. hacā "from, out of," cf. Skt. sácā "with," PIE base *sek^w- "to follow," Av. hac-, hax- "to follow," hacaiti "follows," Skt. sácate "accompanies, follows," Gk. hepesthai "to follow," L. sequi "to follow," Lith. seku "to follow") + bon "beginning, base, root" (Av. būna- "base, depth," cf. Skt. bundha-, budhná- "base, bottom," Pali bunda- "root of tree").

In physics and chemistry, a calculation that relies on basic and established laws without additional assumptions or special models. Experimental input in ab initio calculations is limited to the determination of values of fundamental physical constants.

→ ab initio; → calculation.

A → photometric system defined by reference to → monochromatic magnitudes in such a way that, when monochromatic → flux f_ν is measured in ergs sec^-1 cm^-2 Hz^-1, the magnitude will be: AB = -2.5 logf_ν - 48.60. The constant is set so that AB is equal to the V magnitude for a source with a flat → spectral energy distribution. The → zero point is defined by the flux of the star → Vega at 5546 Å. In this system, an object with constant flux per unit frequency interval has zero color.

→ magnitude; → system.