stella
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈstɛl.ə/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛlə
- Homophones: Stella, stellar (in non-rhotic accents), steller (in non-rhotic accents), Steller (in non-rhotic accents)
- Hyphenation: stel‧la
Noun
stella (plural stellae)
- (botany) A star-shaped structure.
- 1939 June, Reed C. Rollins, “Studies in the Genus Lesquerella”, in American Journal of Botany, volume 26, number 6, :
- Plants of this collection are several decimeters taller; the pedicels are more remote in the inforescence; the stellae are larger and form a less dense cover on plant parts, and the siliques are slightly larger than in the usual form of the species.
- 1997 July, Maria de Fátima Agra, Michael Nee, “A new species of Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum (Solanaceae) from northeastern Brazil”, in Brittonia, volume 49, number 3, , page 350:
- Stems and young branches terete, viscid, densely ferruginous-tomentose with sessile to short-stalked pauciradiate stellae bearing greatly prolonged 4-6-celled midpoints, these 0.1-0.2 cm long, gland-tipped, strongly armed with ferruginous laterally compressed prickles, these broad-based and sparsely glandular in the basal quarter.
- 2008 December, Fang Chen, XiPing Dong, “The internal structure of Early Cambrian fossil embryo Olivooides revealed in the light of synchrotron X-ray tomographic microscopy”, in Chinese Science Bulletin, volume 53, number 24, , page 3860:
- The morphological and statistic analyses are also given to the stellae structure of Olivooides and Punctatus, which indicates that this structure is a result of adaptive evolu- tion to a lifestyle of fast-attaching after hatching, probably with the function of mucilage secretion.
- (US, numismatics) Alternative letter-case form of Stella.
Derived terms
References
- “stella”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
Corsican
Etymology
From Latin stella, from Proto-Italic *stērlā, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr. Cognates include Italian stella and Romanian stea.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈstelːa/
References
- “stella, stedda, stidda” in INFCOR: Banca di dati di a lingua corsa
Interlingua
Etymology
From Latin stella, from Proto-Italic *stērlā, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr.
Italian
Etymology 1
Inherited from Latin stēlla, from Proto-Italic *stērlā, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr. Doublet of étoile.
Pronunciation
- (standard) IPA(key): /ˈstel.la/
- Rhymes: -ella
- Hyphenation: stél‧la
- (Milan) IPA(key): /ˈstɛl.la/
Audio (Milan) (file)
Noun
stella f (plural stelle)
- star
- c. 1226, Francis of Assisi, Cantico delle creature [Canticle of the Creatures]; copied, (manuscript), c. mid 13th century, page 2:
- Lauꝺato ſi miſignore ꝑ ſora luna ele ſtelle. in celu lai foꝛmate clarite ⁊ p̄tioſe ⁊ belle. (Umbria)
- [Laudato si' mi' signore per sora luna e le stelle, in cielu l'hai formate clarite e preziose e belle.]
- Praised be you, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars; in heaven you have made them clear and precious and beautiful.
- mid 1300s–mid 1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto XXXIV”, in Inferno [Hell], lines 136–139; republished as Giorgio Petrocchi, editor, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata [The Commedia according to the ancient vulgate], 2nd revised edition, Florence: publ. Le Lettere, 1994:
- salimmo sù, el primo e io secondo,
tanto ch’i’ vidi de le cose belle
che porta ’l ciel, per un pertugio tondo.
E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.- We climbed up, he first and I second, until I saw the beautiful things that are in the sky through a round hole; then we got out to see the stars again.
- 1473, Lorenzo de' Medici, Altercazione [Altercation], lines 139–141; republished as “De’ beni naturali, cioè corporali” (chapter 3), Altercazione, in Attilio Simioni, compiler, Lorenzo de’ Medici il Magnifico - Opere, volume 2, Bari: Laterza, 1913, page 51:
- E come il sol par l’altre stelle cuopra,
cosí questo splendor lucente e chiaro
ombra l’inferior, ch’è piú degna opra.- And just as the sun seems to cover the other stars, so this shining, clear splendour shadows the lesser, being a more worthy task.
- mid 1560s [29–19 BCE], “Libro quinto”, in Annibale Caro, transl., Eneide, translation of Aeneis by Publius Vergilius Maro (in Classical Latin), lines 746–748; republished as L’Eneide di Virgilio, Florence: G. Barbera, 1892:
- Tal sovente dal ciel divelta cade
Notturna stella, e trascorrendo lascia
Dopo sè lungo e luminoso il crine.- [original: caelō ceu saepe refīxa
trānscurrunt crīnemque volantia sīdera dūcunt] - Thus a night star, ripped from the sky, falls, and passes leaving after itself a long, shiny tail.
- [original: caelō ceu saepe refīxa
- 1790s, Giuseppe Parini, Notte [Night]; collected in Opere dell’abate Giuseppe Parini, Venice: Giacomo Storti, 1803, page 167:
- […] Il debil raggio
De le stelle remote, e de’ pianeti,
Che nel silenzio camminando vanno
Rompea gli orrori tuoi sol quanto è duopo
A sentirli vie più. […]- The faint ray of the faraway stars, and of the planets, which travel through the silence, stopped your horrors just as much as is needed to feel them even more.
- 1810 [c. 8th century BCE], “Libro XIX”, in Vincenzo Monti, transl., Iliade, translation of Ῑ̓λιάς (Īliás, Iliad) by Homer (in Epic Greek), lines 380–382; republished as Iliade di Omero, 4th edition, Milan: Società tipografica dei classici italiani, 1825:
- […] Stella parea
Su la fronte il grand’elmo irto d’equine
Chiome, […]- [original: […] ἡ δ’ ἀστὴρ ὣς ἀπέλαμπεν
ἵππουρις τρυφάλεια […]] - […] hē d’ astḕr hṑs apélampen
híppouris trupháleia […]
- […] hē d’ astḕr hṑs apélampen
- […] The great helmet, fitted with horsehair, looked like a star on the forehead, […]
- [original: […] ἡ δ’ ἀστὴρ ὣς ἀπέλαμπεν
- 1904, Luigi Pirandello, “Premessa seconda (filosofica) a mo' di scusa [Second (philosophical) introduction, as an apology]” (chapter 2), in Il fu Mattia Pascal [The Late Mattia Pascal]; new revised edition, Milan: Fratelli Treves Editori, 1919, page 8:
- Il che vuol dire, in fondo, che noi anche oggi crediamo che la luna non stia per altro nel cielo, che per farci lume di notte, come il sole di giorno, e le stelle per offrirci un magnifico spettacolo.
- Which—all things considered—means that we, to this day, believe that the moon is only in the sky to make light for us at night, like the sun during the day, and the stars to offer us an amazing spectacle.
- (heraldry) star, mullet
Related terms
Further reading
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈstel.la/
- Rhymes: -ella
- Hyphenation: stél‧la
Verb
stella
- inflection of stellare (“to adorn with stars”):
- third-person singular present indicative
- second-person singular imperative
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈstɛl.la/
- Rhymes: -ɛlla
- Hyphenation: stèl‧la
Verb
stella
- inflection of stellare (“to shape (the ribs of a ship's hull)”):
- third-person singular present indicative
- second-person singular imperative
Anagrams
Latin
Alternative forms
- stēla (late, attested in Anonymous Valesianus II)
Etymology
From Proto-Italic *stērlā, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr. Can be considered an assimilated version of *stērla, a diminutive form.
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈsteːl.la/, [ˈs̠t̪eːlːʲä]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈstel.la/, [ˈst̪ɛlːä]
Noun
stēlla f (genitive stēllae); first declension
- (literal) a star; (poetic) a constellation
- a wandering star, a planet
- Synonym: stēlla errāns
- a meteor, a shooting star
- (transferred sense)
Inflection
First-declension noun.
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | stēlla | stēllae |
Genitive | stēllae | stēllārum |
Dative | stēllae | stēllīs |
Accusative | stēllam | stēllās |
Ablative | stēllā | stēllīs |
Vocative | stēlla | stēllae |
Descendants
- Balkan Romance:
- Dalmatian:
- Italo-Romance:
- Padanian: (many via the form stēla)
- Insular Romance:
- Gallo-Romance: (all via the form stēla)
- Ibero-Romance:
Borrowings:
References
- “stella”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “stella”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- stella in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- stella in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
- the regular courses of the stars: motus stellarum constantes et rati
- the planets: stellae errantes, vagae
- the fixed stars: stellae inerrantes (N. D. 2. 21. 54)
- the regular courses of the stars: motus stellarum constantes et rati
Lombard
Alternative forms
- stèlla (Classical Milanese Orthography)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈstɛla/
Further reading
Neapolitan
Descendants
- Tarantino: stella
Old Occitan
Etymology
From Latin stella, from Proto-Italic *stērlā, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr.
Sardinian
Etymology
From Latin stēlla, from Proto-Italic *stērlā, a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr, derived from the root *h₂eh₁s- (“to burn”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈstɛlla/
Tarantino
Etymology
From Neapolitan stella, Latin stella, from Proto-Italic *stērlā, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr.