Editing Polaris (section)

==Names==
[[Image:Polaris system.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|This artist's concept shows: supergiant Polaris Aa, dwarf Polaris Ab, and the distant dwarf companion Polaris B.]]
The modern name ''Polaris''<ref name="IAU-CSN">[[IAU Working Group on Star Names]] {{cite web | url=http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~emamajek/WGSN/IAU-CSN.txt | title=IAU Catalog of Star Names |access-date=2016-07-28 }}</ref> is shortened from the [[Neo-Latin]] ''stella polaris'' ("[[polar star]]"), coined in the Renaissance when the star had approached the celestial pole to within a few degrees.<ref name="gemmaefrisii"/><ref name="kunitzch"/>

[[Gemma Frisius]], writing in 1547, referred to it as ''stella illa quae polaris dicitur'' ("that star which is called 'polar'"), placing it 3° 8' from the celestial pole.<ref name="gemmaefrisii">{{cite book | title=Gemmae Frisii de astrolabo catholico liber: quo latissime patentis instrumenti multiplex usus explicatur, & quicquid uspiam rerum mathematicarum tradi possit continetur | publisher=Steelsius | date=1556 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8XE6AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA20 | page=20 }}</ref><ref name="kunitzch">{{cite book |last1=Kunitzsch |first1=Paul |last2=Smart |first2=Tim |date = 2006 |title = A Dictionary of Modern star Names: A Short Guide to 254 Star Names and Their Derivations |edition = 2nd rev. |publisher = [[Sky and Telescope|Sky Publishing]] |location = Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn = 978-1-931559-44-7 |page = 23}}</ref>

In 2016, the [[International Astronomical Union]] organized a [[IAU Working Group on Star Names|Working Group on Star Names]] (WGSN)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/working_groups/280/|title=International Astronomical Union {{!}} IAU|website=www.iau.org|access-date=2019-01-19}}</ref> to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN; which included ''Polaris'' for the star α Ursae Minoris Aa.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.iau.org/static/science/scientific_bodies/working_groups/280/WGSN_bulletin1.pdf|title=Bulletin of the IAU Working Group on Star Names, No. 1}}</ref>

In antiquity, Polaris was not yet the closest naked-eye star to the celestial pole, and the entire constellation of [[Ursa Minor]] was used for navigation rather than any single star. Polaris moved close enough to the pole to be the closest naked-eye star, even though still at a distance of several degrees, in the early medieval period, and numerous names referring to this characteristic as [[polar star]] have been in use since the medieval period. In Old English, it was known as ''scip-steorra'' ("ship-star").{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

In the "[[Old English rune poem]]", the [[Tiwaz (rune)|T-rune]] is apparently associated with "a circumpolar constellation", or the planet Mars.<ref>{{cite book | first=Bruce | last=Dickins | title=Runic and heroic poems of the old Teutonic peoples | date=1915 | page=18 }}; Dickins' "a circumpolar constellation" is attributed to L. Botkine, ''La Chanson des Runes'' (1879).</ref>

In the Hindu [[Puranas]], it became personified under the name ''[[Dhruva]]'' ("immovable, fixed").<ref>{{cite book | first=Alain | last=Daniélou | author-link=Alain Daniélou | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1HMXN9h6WX0C&pg=PA186 | title=The Myths and Gods of India: The Classic Work on Hindu Polytheism | publisher=Princeton/Bollingen (1964); Inner Traditions/Bear & Co | date=1991 | isbn=978-0-892-813544 | page=186 }}</ref>

In the later medieval period, it became associated with the [[Marian title]] of [[Our Lady, Star of the Sea|''Stella Maris'' "Star of the Sea"]] (so in [[Bartholomaeus Anglicus]], c. 1270s),<ref>{{cite book | editor1-first=James Orchard | editor1-last=Halliwell-Phillipps | title=The Works of William Shakespeare | volume=5 | date=1856 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7NVfAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA40 | page=40 }}</ref> due to an earlier transcription error.<ref>{{Catholic Encyclopedia|prescript=|wstitle=The Name of Mary}}</ref>

An older English name, attested since the 14th century, is [[:wikt:lodestar|lodestar]] "guiding star", cognate with the Old Norse ''leiðarstjarna'', Middle High German ''leitsterne''.<ref>{{cite book | first1=Friedrich | last1=Kluge | first2=Alfred | last2=Götze | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R1K9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA355 | title=Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache | publisher=Walter de Gruyter | date=1943 | isbn=978-3-111-67185-7 | page=355 }}</ref>

The ancient name of the constellation Ursa Minor, ''Cynosura'' (from the Greek {{lang|grc|κυνόσουρα}} "the dog's tail"),<ref name="Ridpath2018">{{cite book | first=Ian | last=Ridpath | title=Star Tales | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-dXYDwAAQBAJ | date=2018-06-28 | publisher=Lutterworth Press | isbn=978-0-7188-4782-1 }}</ref> became associated with the pole star in particular by the early modern period.  An explicit identification of [[Our Lady, Star of the Sea|Mary as ''stella maris'']] with the polar star (''Stella Polaris''), as well as the use of ''Cynosura'' as a name of the star, is evident in the title ''Cynosura seu Mariana Stella Polaris'' (i.e. "Cynosure, or the Marian Polar Star"), a collection of Marian poetry published by Nicolaus Lucensis (Niccolo Barsotti de Lucca) in 1655. {{citation needed|date=May 2018}}

[[File:Book of the Fixed Stars Auv0043 ursa minor cropped.jpg|thumb|Ursa Minor as depicted in the 964 Persian work [[The Book of Fixed Stars|Book of Fixed Stars]], Polaris named ''al-Judayy'' "الجدي" in the lower right.]]
Its name in traditional pre-Islamic Arab astronomy was ''al-Judayy'' الجدي ("the kid", in the sense of a juvenile [[goat]] ["le Chevreau"] in Description des Etoiles fixes),<ref>{{cite book
 | author=ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʻUmar Ṣūfī
 | title=Description des Etoiles fixes | page=45
 | year=1874 | publisher=Commissionnaires de lÁcadémie Impériale des sciences
 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nJRHAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA45
}}</ref> and that name was used in [[Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world|medieval Islamic astronomy]] as well.<ref>
{{cite web 
|last=Al-Sufi 
|first=AbdulRahman
|date = 964 
|title = Book Of Fixed Stars
|url = http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b60006156/f48.item
}}</ref><ref>
{{Cite book 
|last=Schjellerup
|first=Hans
|date = 1874 
|title = Description des Etoiles fixes
|page = 45
|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=nJRHAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA45
}}</ref> In those times, it was not yet as close to the north celestial pole as it is now, and used to rotate around the pole.{{fact|date=January 2025}}

It was invoked as a symbol of steadfastness in poetry, as "steadfast star" by [[Edmund Spenser|Spenser]].
[[Shakespeare]]'s [[sonnet 116]] is an example of the symbolism of the north star as a guiding principle: "[Love] is the star to every wandering bark / Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken."{{fact|date=January 2025}}

In ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]'', Shakespeare has [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]] explain his refusal to grant a pardon: "I am as constant as the northern star/Of whose true-fixed and resting quality/There is no fellow in the firmament./The skies are painted with unnumbered sparks,/They are all fire and every one doth shine,/But there's but one in all doth hold his place;/So in the world" (III, i, 65–71). Of course, Polaris will not "constantly" remain as the north star due to [[Axial precession#Changing pole stars|precession]], but this is only noticeable over centuries.{{citation needed|date=May 2018}}
<!-- unreferenced names:   Phoenice, Tramontana,  Navigatoria, Star of Arcady,   Çulpan -->

In [[Inuit astronomy]], Polaris is known as ''Nuutuittuq'' (<small>[[Inuktitut syllabics|syllabics]]</small>: {{lang|iu-Cans|ᓅᑐᐃᑦᑐᖅ}}).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Penprase|first=Bryan E.|title=The Power of Stars|publisher=Springer|year=2011|isbn=978-1-4419-6802-9|location=New York, NY|page=45|chapter=Northern Circumpolar Sky from Around the World: The Arctic Inuit Sky}}</ref>

In traditional [[Lakota people|Lakota]] star knowledge, Polaris is named "Wičháȟpi Owáŋžila". This translates to "The Star that Sits Still". This name comes from a [[Lakota people|Lakota]] story in which he married Tȟapȟúŋ Šá Wíŋ, "Red Cheeked Woman". However, she fell from the heavens, and in his grief Wičháȟpi Owáŋžila stared down from "waŋkátu" (the above land) forever.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://lastrealindians.com/news/2019/12/26/winter-solstice-is-sacred-time-a-time-to-carry-one-another-by-dakota-wind |title=Winter Solstice is Sacred Time a Time to Carry One Another by Dakota Wind |date=2019-12-27 |first=Dakota |last=Wind |work=Last Real Indians }}</ref>

The [[Cree|Plains Cree]] call the star in [[Plains Cree language|Nehiyawewin]]: ''acâhkos êkâ kâ-âhcît'' "the star that does not move" (<small>[[Cree syllabics|syllabics]]</small>: {{lang|crk|ᐊᒑᐦᑯᐢ ᐁᑳ ᑳ ᐋᐦᒌᐟ}}).<ref>{{cite web |title=Polaris |url=https://dictionary.plainscree.atlas-ling.ca/ |website=Plains Cree Dictionary |access-date=13 December 2022}}</ref>

In [[Miꞌkmaq language|Mi'kmawi'simk]] the star is named ''Tatapn''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lebans |first1=Jim |title=Mi'kmaw astronomer says we should acknowledge we live under Indigenous skies |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/oct-1-redirecting-an-asteroid-rainforest-politics-wildlife-and-covid-and-more-1.6599378/mi-kmaw-astronomer-says-we-should-acknowledge-we-live-under-indigenous-skies-1.6600279 |access-date=2022-12-21 |agency=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |date=2022-09-29 }}</ref>

In the ancient Finnish worldview, the North Star has also been called ''taivaannapa'' and ''naulatähti'' ("the nailstar") because it seems to be attached to the firmament or even to act as a fastener for the sky when other stars orbit it. Since the starry sky seemed to rotate around it, the firmament is thought of as a wheel, with the star as the pivot on its axis. The names derived from it were ''sky pin'' and ''world pin''.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}