اختر

اختر

See also: أختر‎

Ottoman Turkish

Etymology

Borrowed from Persian اختر‎ (axtar, “star”).

Noun

اختر • (ahter)

1. (astronomy) star, a luminous celestial body made up of plasma

   Synonyms: ستاره‎ (sitāre), نجم‎ (necm), یلدز‎ (yıldız)

2. (figuratively) one's star, fortune, luck, chance, destiny

   Synonym: ستاره‎ (sitāre)

Derived terms

• اختراشناس‎ (ahter-şinas, “astrologer”)
• اخترسوخته‎ (ahter-suhte, “unfortunate”)
• اخترشمر‎ (ahter-şümer, “astrologer”)
• اخترگو‎ (ahter-gü, “astrologer”)
• بد اختر‎ (bad ahter, “ill-fortuned”)
• نیك اختر‎ (nik ahter, “lucky”)

 

Descendants

• Turkish: ahter

Further reading

• Çağbayır, Yaşar (2007), “ahter”, in Ötüken Türkçe Sözlük (in Turkish), volume 1, Istanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, page 158
• Kélékian, Diran (1911), “اختر”, in Dictionnaire turc-français, Constantinople: Mihran, page 59
• Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1687), “Stella”, in Complementum thesauri linguarum orientalium, seu onomasticum latino-turcico-arabico-persicum, simul idem index verborum lexici turcico-arabico-persici, quod latinâ, germanicâ, aliarumque linguarum adjectâ nomenclatione nuper in lucem editum, Vienna, column 1595
• Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1680), “اختر”, in Thesaurus linguarum orientalium, Turcicae, Arabicae, Persicae, praecipuas earum opes à Turcis peculiariter usurpatas continens, nimirum Lexicon Turkico-Arabico-Persicum, Vienna, column 90
• Redhouse, James W. (1890), “اختر”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon, Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 42

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Persian

Etymology

From Middle Persian [Book Pahlavi needed] (ʾhtl /axtar/), from [Book Pahlavi needed] (ʾpʾhtl /abāxtar/, “planet”), distorted due to a mistaken folk etymology that the first element ab- was a negative suffix, the idea being that the planets were "un-stars" due to their astronomically odd behavior.[1]

Pronunciation

• (Classical Persian) IPA^(key): /axtaɾ/

• (Dari Persian) IPA^(key): /axtaɾ/

• (Iranian Persian) IPA^(key): /æxtæɾ/

• (Tajik) IPA^(key): /axtaɾ/

Noun

Dari	اختر
Iranian Persian
Tajik	ахтар (axtar)

اختر • (axtar)

1. (astronomy or literary) star

   Synonyms: (usual word) ستاره‎ (setâre), کوکب‎ (kowkab)

   • c. 1390, Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfiẓ, “Ghazal 12”, in دیوان حافظ [The Divān of Ḥāfiẓ]‎:

     ‏ای شهنشاه بلند اختر، خدا را همتی
     تا ببوسم همچو اختر خاک ایوان شما‎

     ay šahinšāh-i buland axtar, xudā rā himmatē
     tā bibōsam hamčō axtar xāk-i ēwān-i šumā

     O King of Kings of soaring fortune [the Beloved], for God's sake just a little grace,
     So that I might kiss―as do the stars―the dust of your porch.

     (Classical Persian transliteration)

2. (literary, figurative) fortune; luck

   Synonym: بخت‎‎ (baxt)

   ‏اختر نیک‎ (literary) ― axtar-e nik ― good fortune

   • c. 1390, Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfiẓ, “Ghazal 12”, in دیوان حافظ [The Divān of Ḥāfiẓ]‎:

     ‏ای شهنشاه بلند اختر، خدا را همتی
     تا ببوسم همچو اختر خاک ایوان شما‎

     ay šahinšāh-i buland axtar, xudā rā himmatē
     tā bibōsam hamčō axtar xāk-i ēwān-i šumā

     O King of Kings of soaring fortune [the Beloved], for God's sake just a little grace,
     So that I might kiss―as do the stars―the dust of your porch.

     (Classical Persian transliteration)

Related terms

• ابرنواختر‎ (abar-now-axtar, “supernova”)
• اختر شمردن‎ (axtar šomordan, “to stay up all night”, literally “to count stars”)
• اخترشناس‎ (axtaršenâs, “astronomer”)
• اخترمار‎ (axtarmâr, “astronomer”)
• اختری‎ (axtari, “stellar”)
• بد اختر‎ (bad axtar, “ill-fortuned”, literally “bad-star”)
• بلند اختر‎ (boland axtar, “lucky; fortunate”, literally “high-star”)
• نواختر‎ (now-axtar, “nova”)

 

References

1. Eilers, W. (30 December 2012), “AXTAR”, in Encyclopædia Iranica‎, volume III/2, page 123