Etymology

Etymology[edit]

OED gives the translation "star-taker" for the English word astrolabe and traces it through medieval Latin to the Greek word astrolabos,^[4][5]from astron "star" and lambanein "to take".^[6] In the medieval Islamic world the Arabic word "al-Asturlāb" (i.e. astrolabe) was given various etymologies. In Arabic texts, the word is translated as "ākhdhu al-Nujuum" (Arabic: آخِذُ ٱلنُّجُومْ‎, lit. "star-taker"), a direct translation of the Greek word.^[7]

Al-Biruni quotes and criticizes medieval scientist Hamzah al-Isfahani who stated:^[7] "asturlab is an arabization of this Persian phrase" (sitara yab, meaning "taker of the stars").^[8] In medieval Islamic sources, there is also a folk etymology of the word as "lines of lab", where "Lab" refers to a certain son of Idris (Enoch). This etymology is mentioned by a 10th-century scientist named al-Qummi but rejected by al-Khwarizmi.^[9]