Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2019 April 24

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

April 24

Meaning of "Lilii Borea"

This was phrase was recently accepted as the official name of a star, and I was wondering what it means, and where the long vowels are so I know the stress pattern. It first appeared here.[1] I assume it's Līliī Boreā "of the Lily from the North", vs ''Līliī Austrīnā "of the Lily from the South" (a nearby star). I'm wondering why līliī is in the genitive, though, and I have now idea how the cases in Latin might interact. If that's the right form, then I'd expect the traditional English pronunciation to be /ˈlɪliaɪ ˈbɔərieɪ/, though I don't know why the OED should have a short stressed vowel in words similar to lilii, but a long stressed vowel in boreal and boreas. — kwami (talk) 05:05, 24 April 2019 (UTC)

This is 39 Arietis, which is now considered to be in Aries, but when Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille named those stars in 1757, it was considered to be in Lilium, which is no longer a recognized constellation. In the page you linked to, La Caille is giving the locations of the stars in the ablative case in Latin, usually with "in" ("in pectore Ceti", "in baltheo Orionis", etc.), so "Boreā" is also the ablative case, "in the north part [of Lilium]". (I'm not sure why he doesn't use "in" there...I guess because it's already a directional word.) Adam Bishop (talk) 11:47, 24 April 2019 (UTC)

Thanks, Adam. Definitely a link that belongs in the article. — kwami (talk) 01:51, 25 April 2019 (UTC)