stellify

English

WOTD – 6 July 2010

Etymology

From Middle English stellifien (“to make into a star; glorify, deify”), from Middle French stellifier, from Medieval Latin stellificāre, itself from Latin stella (“star”) + faciō (“make, do”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈstɛl.ɪ.faɪ/

• Audio (US):

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Verb

stellify (third-person singular simple present stellifies, present participle stellifying, simple past and past participle stellified)

1. (transitive, mythology) To transform from an earthly body into a celestial body; to place in the sky as such

   In Classical mythology, being stellified was about the greatest posthumous honor for a mortal.

   • 1983, Douglas Brooks-Davies, The Mercurian Monarch: magical politics from Spenser to Pope, page 31:

     By the 'hissing snake' Spenser presumably means the scorpion sent by Diana that killed Orion. Like Orion it, too, was stellified. But since, as Scorpio, it rises in the east as Orion's sign sets in the west, the two were regarded as being kept forever apart, Orion perpetually avoiding in the heavens his vanquisher on earth.

2. (transitive, astronomy) To turn into a star.
   • 1989, Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, 109: 75:

     An alternative way to stellify the planet may be to not collapse Jupiter, but instead to introduce a collapsed object into its core.

Translations

mythology: to transform from an earthly body into a celestial body

• Finnish: muuttaa tähdeksi
• French: stellifier (fr)
• Russian: превраща́ть (ru) (prevraščátʹ) в звезду́ (ru) (zvezdú)

astronomy: to turn into a star

• Finnish: muuttaa tähdeksi