Alioth

Alioth is a modern star name adopted by the International Astronomical Union in the IAU-Catalog of Star Names (IAU-CSN). Its origin is Arabic. It is the name of HIP 62956 (ε UMa, HR 4905) in constellation UMa.

Etymology and History

Ultimately from its ind-A name al-jaun, "the Black Horse, or Bull", which became corrupted even in Arabic sources (where some of the corruptions carried other meanings). For example, in the Arabic manuscript of the Almagest that was translated into Latin in 1175 AD, this name of ε UMa had apparently been miswritten as al-jauza or al-jauza (the latter being identical to the sci-A name for Orion and Gemini). Whatever was read in this Arabic manuscript was transliterated into Latin as alioze. In subsequent Latin copies, this name was further corrupted to aliore, Alcor, Alioth, etc. Since late medieval times, "Alioth" became the preferred name for ε UMa.

IAU Working Group on Star Names

The name was adopted by the IAU WGSN on 2016/06/30.

Weblinks

• Website of the IAU WGSN: https://exopla.net/

Reference

• References (general)
• Kunitzsch, Paul; Smart, Tim (2006). A Dictionary of Modern star Names: A Short Guide to 254 Star Names and Their Derivations (2nd rev. ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Sky Pub.