page_title: Betelgeuse
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Betelgeuse / Ethnological attributes / Etymology
caption_attribution_description: English: A segment of the Dunhuang star map from around AD 700 AD. British Library Or.8210/S.3326 showing the Third and Fourth lunar months, with the constellation of Orion to the left along with the stars Betelgeuse, Rigel, Bellatrix, Saiph , the three stars that compose Orion's belt - Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka, along with the Orion Nebula.
context_page_description: Betelgeuse is usually the tenth-brightest star in the night sky and, after Rigel, the second-brightest in the constellation of Orion. It is a distinctly reddish semiregular variable star whose apparent magnitude, varying between +0.0 and +1.6, has the widest range displayed by any first-magnitude star. At near-infrared wavelengths, Betelgeuse is the brightest star in the night sky. Its Bayer designation is α Orionis, Latinised to Alpha Orionis and abbreviated Alpha Ori or α Ori.
  Classified as a red supergiant of spectral type M1-2, Betelgeuse is one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye. If it was at the center of our Solar System, its surface would lie beyond the asteroid belt and it would engulf the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and possibly Jupiter. Nevertheless, there are several larger red supergiants in the Milky Way, including VY Canis Majoris and possibly Mu Cephei. Calculations of Betelgeuse’s mass range from slightly under ten to a little over twenty times that of the Sun. It is calculated to be about 700 light-years from the Sun, indicating an absolute magnitude of about −6.
context_section_description: Betelgeuse is often mistranslated as "armpit of the central one". In his 1899 work Star-Names and Their Meanings, American amateur naturalist Richard Hinckley Allen stated the derivation was from the ابط الجوزاء Ibṭ al-Jauzah, which he claimed degenerated into a number of forms including Bed Elgueze, Beit Algueze, Bet El-gueze, Beteigeuze and more, to the forms Betelgeuse, Betelguese, Betelgueze and Betelgeux. The star was named Beldengeuze in the Alfonsine Tables, and Italian Jesuit priest and astronomer Giovanni Battista Riccioli had called it Bectelgeuze or Bedalgeuze.
  Paul Kunitzsch, Professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Munich, refuted Allen's derivation and instead proposed that the full name is a corruption of the Arabic يد الجوزاء Yad al-Jauzā' meaning "the Hand of al-Jauzā'", i.e., Orion.
  European mistransliteration into medieval Latin led to the first character y (ﻴ, with two dots underneath) being misread as a b (ﺒ, with only one dot underneath).
  During the Renaissance, the star's name was written as بيت الجوزاء Bait al-Jauzā' ("house of Orion") or بط الجوزاء Baţ al-Jauzā', incorrectly thought to mean "armpit of Orion" (a true translation of "armpit" would be ابط, transliterated as Ibţ). This led to the modern rendering as Betelgeuse. Other writers have since accepted Kunitzsch's explanation.
  
  The last part of the name, "-elgeuse", comes from the Arabic الجوزاء al-Jauzā', a historical Arabic name of the constellation Orion, a feminine name in old Arabian legend, and of uncertain meaning. Because جوز j-w-z, the root of jauzā', means "middle", al-Jauzā' roughly means "the Central One". The modern Arabic name for Orion is الجبار al-Jabbār ("the Giant"), although the use of الجوزاء al-Jauzā' in the name of the star has continued. The 17th-century English translator Edmund Chilmead gave it the name Ied Algeuze ("Orion's Hand"), from Christmannus. Other Arabic names recorded include Al Yad al Yamnā ("the Right Hand"), Al Dhira ("the Arm"), and Al Mankib ("the Shoulder"), all appended to "of the giant", as منكب الجوزاء Mankib al Jauzā'.
caption: Dunhuang Star Chart, circa AD 700, showing 参宿四 Shēnxiùsì (Betelgeuse), the Fourth Star of the constellation of Three Stars
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2010:02:08 15:51:02", "Image ExifOffset": "2184", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3298", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "440", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}