Alioth

Ursa Major · UMa · ε UMa · HR 4905 · HIP 62956

Ultimately from its ind-A name al-jaun, "the Black Horse, or Bull," which became corrupted even in Arabic sources (where some of the corruptions carried other meanings). For example, in the Arabic manuscript of the Alma…

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Astronomy

Official IAU information

Designation

HR 4905

HIP

62956

Bayer ID

ε UMa

IAU adoption

2016/06/30

Name origin

Ultimately from its ind-A name al-jaun, "the Black Horse, or Bull," which became corrupted even in Arabic sources (where some of the corruptions carried other meanings). For example, in the Arabic manuscript of the Almagest that was translated into Latin in 1175 A.D., this name of ε UMa had apparently been miswritten as al-jauza or al-jauza (the latter being identical to the sci-A name for Orion and Gemini). Whatever was read in this Arabic manuscript was transliterated into Latin as alioze. In subsequent Latin copies, this name was further corrupted to aliore, Alcor, Alioth, etc. Since late medieval times, "Alioth" became the preferred name for ε UMa.

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