Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The study of the positions and motions of celestial bodies in the belief that they have an influence on the course of natural earthly occurrences and human affairs.
  • noun Obsolete Astronomy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The science or doctrine of the stars; practical astronomy; astronomy in its earliest form.
  • noun An old name for the plant bistort, Polygonum Bistorta.
  • noun That branch of astrology which professes to predict natural effects, as changes of the weather, winds, storms, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun In its etymological signification, the science of the stars; among the ancients, synonymous with astronomy; subsequently, the art of judging of the influences of the stars upon human affairs, and of foretelling events by their position and aspects.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The study of the movements and relative positions of celestial bodies and their supposed influence on human affairs.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a pseudoscience claiming divination by the positions of the planets and sun and moon

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English astrologie, from Old French, from Latin astrologia, from Greek astrologiā : astro-, astro- + -logiā, -logy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Surface form astro- + -logy. From Latin astrologia ("astronomy"), from Ancient Greek ἀστρολογία (astrologia, "telling of the stars"), from ἄστρον (astron, "star, planet, or constellation") + -λογία (-logia, "treating of"), combination form of -λόγος (-logos, "one who speaks (in a certain manner)").

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Comments

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  • Uffa, WordNet has it in for the astrologers! And how!

    October 10, 2008

  • It's also forgotten about the constellations of the Zodiac, despite the etymology of astrology.

    October 11, 2008

  • Astrology has had a revered place in most ancient cultures. While modern science, and Western religions throughout the ages, have been adversarial to astrology, and created a disparaging view of astrology, with the advent of personal computer astrology software and accurate birth times (the Achilles Heel of natal astrology is the dependency upon accurate birth times), astrology is experiencing a renascence.

    There are now many different and active schools of astrology including Vedic, Modern Western, Medieval, Cosmobiology, Hellenistic, Huber, Chinese, Tibetan, Mayan, and more.

    June 9, 2009