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I read somewhere that 'Betelgaux' comes from 'Ibt al Gausa' which in Arabic means 'The Shulder of the Giant'
----- Original Message -----
From: Frank R
To:
Sent: 08 April 2005 23:38
Subject: Re: Benetnasch and Alkaid revisited
Peter wrote:
"Why do we have so many stars with Arabic names?"
In part, I think it's because so few Europeans and European descendants have spoken Arabic historically. Part of the thing that makes a "proper name" sound "proper" is its obscurity. If you had to look up in the sky and say "that star is called 'The Knee'", it wouldn't seem like a proper name. But "Rigel"... that sounds mysterious and foreign and it feels like a proper name --only because it's untranslated (and corrupted) Arabic.
-FER
42.0N 87.7W, or 41.4N 72.1W.
www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars
