Hello hello my shining stars! And thank you for joining me this glowing day and/or night. Today, we are shooting for the stars, aiming for the moon, and flying high in the sky as we look at today’s word: constellate.

‘Constellate’, though related to the word ‘constellation’ does not necessarily relate to astronomy, but means ‘to combine as a cluster’. It comes from the Latin ‘constellatus’ meaning ‘starred’, ‘Constellate can also mean ‘to shine with united radiance, or one general light’. Now isn’t that lovely?

The related word ‘stellar’, meaning ‘of, pertaining to, or characteristic of stars’, comes from the Latin ‘stēllāris’, which comes from the Proto-Italic ‘*stērolā’ meaning ‘star’. The word ‘constellation’ is similarly derived, and refers to ‘an arbitrary pattern of stars forming in the sky, especially those identified by astronomers.’ It can also refer to astrology, in terms of where the planets are located at one’s time of birth, as used for determining one’s horoscope. ‘The twelve equal divisions of the zodiacal region into signs or houses, each named for a prominent constellation in the region’ is called the ‘zodiac’, or your star sign. The word ‘zodiac’ comes from Old French ‘zodiaque’, from the Latin ‘zōdiacus’, which in turn is from Ancient Greek ‘zōidiakós’ meaning ‘circle of little animals’. In astronomy, however, ‘zodiac’ means ‘the ecliptic: the belt-like region of the celestial sphere corresponding to the apparent path of the sun over the course of a year.’

Let us take, for example, my zodiac! I am an aquarius. Aquarius is the 11th zodiac sign from the Latin ‘aquarius’, a loan translation of the Greek ‘Hydrokhoos’ meaning ‘the water-pourer,’, which is also the old Greek name of the constellation for which the house is named. Aquarians were a group of Chistians who drank water instead of wine at the Lord’s Supper, and the ‘Aquarian Age’ is an astrological epoch thought to have begun in the 20th century embodying the traits of this sign and promoting world peace and human brotherhood. You might recognise this concept from the popular song ‘Age of Aquarius’ from 1967, featured in the hit musical ‘Hair’. 

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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