Definitions

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

  • proper noun A female given name.
  • proper noun biblical A book of the Old Testament and the Hebrew Tanakh.
  • proper noun biblical The heroine of the Book of Esther.

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

  • noun (Old Testament) a beautiful Jewess chosen by the king of Persia to be his queen; she stopped a plot to massacre all the Jews in Persia (an event celebrated by Jews as the feast of Purim)
  • noun an Old Testament book telling of a beautiful Jewess who became queen of Persia and saved her people from massacre

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Either from Old Persian star- ("star"), or from Hebrew עשתר (Ishtar, "a Persian goddess"). Compare Middle Persian stl (star), stʾlk' (stārag), New Persian ستاره (setâre).

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