Betelgeuse

HR 2061

27989

α Ori

2016/06/30

Applied with varied spellings since medieval times, from its ind-A name yad al-jauza', "the Hand of al-jauza'" (The first medieval transliteration into Latin was bedalgeuze, mistaking the initial Arabic letter as "b" instead of "y." In Renaissance times this corruption was erroneously attributed to the assumed Arabic word "bat" [properly ibt], for "the Armpit" of al-jauza', giving rise to the corruption Betelgeuse" seen today. Thus by Renaissance times both the "y" and "d" of the first part of the ind-A name had become corrupted.) The ind-A asterism al-jauza' was a feminine figure represented in the stars of what is today Orion. The origin of its name is unclear (as with nearly all of the ancient group of ind-A names). The root jwz can mean "middle," and the word al-jauza' is structured as a feminine adjective, thus al-jauza' may mean "the female one, having something about her related to the middle." There have been different speculations as to what the "middle" reference, if that is what it is, could be (for one example). The ind-Arabs' al-jauza' corresponded to what in other cultures was Gemini among the zodiacal signs. The sci-Arabs subsequently used the indigenous name for both the Greek Orion and Twins, leading to some confusion in star names between the two constellations. An alternative sci-A name for Orion was al-jabbar, "the Giant" and for Gemini, al-taw'aman, "the Twins.