What is the origin of the word "constellation?"

On Thu, 24 Feb 2000 Bob wrote:

> Although I have discovered the the word "constellation" is of latin origin, I
> would like to find out when and/or by whom these arbitrary groupings of stars
> were first referred to using this term.

According to my dictionary, the word "constellation" first entered the
English language between 1275 and 1325 as the middle English word
"constellacioun", which was derived from the Anglo-French vocabulary used
in the court at the time (and itself derived from Latin, as you
discovered). I do not know any more exact information - scientific
information from this time period is pretty murky. However, groupings of
stars have had names since the beginnings of recorded history (Sumerian
and Egyptian writings record the names), and so some term meaning
"constellation" has been in use since before those times.

Thanks for writing!

Sincerely,
Kurtis Williams

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