star

Definitions

General English

  • noun a

    bright

    object

    which

    can be seen in the sky at

    night

    like

    a

    very

    distant

    bright light
  • noun a

    famous

    person who is

    very

    well known to the

    public

  • verb to

    appear

    as a main character in a film or play

General Science

Astronomy

  • Celestial body whose temperature and density is high enough to allow energy to be generated by nuclear fusion. A massive range of

    star types

    have been catalogued and described, ranging in size from less than 0.1 solar masses to about 100. Most stars follow a simple, almost straight-line, relationship linking their mass to their light output or

    luminosity

    , the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Stars are the basic study of most astronomers and astrophysicists, who in recent years have addressed issues including star formation, the later lives of stars after the major process of energy production – the production of helium by fusing hydrogen – has ceased, and the dynamics of interacting multiple stars, especially those involving a collapsed star and a normal one.

Cricket

  • noun a batsman’s

    innings

    completed without the batsman being dismissed, so called because an asterisk (or ‘star’) is used in the

    scorebook

    to indicate a

    not out

    score.
    See also asterisk
  • verb to offer a potential catch to the

    fielding

    side
    Citation ‘Hollins … proceeded to give

    chance

    after chance that was not accepted. He starred 7 before being finely

    caught and bowled

    for 28’     (Headlam 1903)

Economics

  • noun a

    product

    which has a high market share and a high

    growth

    rate. It will need cash to

    finance

    its growth, but eventually should become a

    cash cow

    .

Electronics

  • A large self-

    luminous

    celestial body, usually composed of gases, which derives its energy from

    nuclear energy

    within its core. The sun is an example.
  • That which has a central hub or node and is

    connected

    to other things which surround said center. Also that which is similarly configured. For example, a

    star network

    or a

    star ground

    .

Media Studies

  • noun a person in the public eye because of a particular achievement or

    talent

    of theirs, e.g. a sports star, a

    film star

    .

Military

  • noun a tiny point of light, visible in the sky at night
  • noun an

    insignia

    in the shape of a star, used as a

    badge of rank

    .

Slang

  • exclamation an all-purpose intensifier placed at the end of an utterance

Theater

  • A top entertainer or performer in films, theater, television,etc. The term is recorded as early as the 1770s, when it was appliedto the actor David Garrick (who has been called "thefirst modern superstar"). The Hollywood star system was createdby the studios in the 1910s as a means of enhancing

    box office

    receipts;before this, the film companies tended not to identify actors andactresses in order to hold down their salaries. In the 20th centurythe term has been devalued by indiscriminate use, leading to suchaggrandized versions as superstar and megastar.

Travel

  • noun a small bright light which you see in the sky at

    night

  • noun a shape with several regular points, used as a system of

    classification

Investing

  • acronym forauction market preferred stock
    (written as STAR)

Aviation

  • acronym forstandard arrival route
    (written as STAR)

Origin & History of “star”

Star is a general Germanic word,

with

relatives in German stern, Dutch ster, Swedish stjärna, and Danish stjerne.

these

were all descended

from

a prehistoric Germanic base *ster-,

which

had

come

down unaltered from Indo-European *ster- ‘star’, source

also

of Latin stēlla ‘star’ (from which

English

gets stellar (16th c.)) and Greek astḗr ‘star’ (from which English gets asterisk, astronomy, disaster, etc). The ultimate source of the Indo-European base is not known for

certain

, but the traditional view is

that

it comes from the base *ster- ‘spread out’, the underlying notion being of the stars ‘spread out’ in the sky. Sterling ‘British money’ was originally named from the design of a

small

‘star’ on a

coin

, but starling is not etymologically related. The

modern

sense of star, ‘leading performer’, is

first

recorded in the

early

19th century.
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