"a square column or pillar," 1570s, from French pilastre (1540s), from Italian pilastro, from Medieval Latin pilastrum (mid-14c.), from pila, "buttress, pile" (from Latin pila, see pillar) + Latin -aster, suffix "expressing incomplete resemblance" [Barnhart].

"figure used in printing and writing to indicate footnote, omission, etc., or to distinguish words or phrases as conjectural," late 14c., asterich, asterisc, from Late Latin asteriscus, from Greek asteriskos "little star," diminutive of aster "star" (from PIE root *ster- (2) "star"). As a verb from 1733.

"one of the planetoids orbiting the sun, found mostly between Mars and Jupiter," 1802, coined probably by German-born English astronomer William Herschel (1738-1822) from Greek asteroeides "star-like," from aster "star" (from PIE root *ster- (2) "star") + -eidos "form, shape" (see -oid). Related: Asteroidal.

"a petty poet, a feeble rhymster, a writer of indifferent verses," 1590s, from French poetastre (1550s), from Latin poeta (see poet) + French-derived -aster, a diminutive (pejorative) suffix. Old Norse had skaldfifl in roughly the same sense. Early modern English had rimester (1580s). Swinburne (1872) used poeticule. Related: Poetastry.

"one obstinate in asserting or adhering to his own opinions," c. 1600, from French opiniastre, from Latin opinio "opinion, conjecture" (see opinion) + deprecatory suffix (see -aster). Another word in a similar sense was opinator "opinionated person" (1620s), from Latin opinator "one who supposes or conjectures." Also opiniator (1520s).

late 14c., poetic for "the evening star," from Latin Hesperus, from Greek hesperos (aster) "the evening (star)," from PIE *wes-pero- "evening, night" (see vesper). Related: Hesperian. Hence Latin and Greek Hesperia "the land of the west," "applied by the Greeks to Italy, by the Romans to Spain or regions beyond" [Century Dictionary].

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "star." Buck and others doubt the old suggestion that it is a borrowing from Akkadian istar "venus." The source of the common Balto-Slavic word for "star" (Lithuanian žvaigždė, Old Church Slavonic zvezda, Polish gwiazda, Russian zvezda) is not explained.

It forms all or part of: aster; asterisk; asterism; asteroid; astral; astro-; astrobiology; astrobleme; astrognosy; astroid; astrolabe; astrolatry; astrology; astromancy; astronaut; astronomy; AstroTurf; constellation; disaster; Estella; Esther; instellation; interstellar; lodestar; star; stardust; starfish; starlet; starlight; starry; stellar; stellate.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit star-; Hittite shittar, Greek aster "star," with derivative astron; Latin stella, Breton sterenn, Welsh seren "star."

1590s, "a constellation, a group of stars," from Greek asterismos "a marking with stars," from aster "star" (from PIE root *ster- (2) "star"). Originally any grouping of stars, whether a constellation or not; in modern use usually the latter. The "Big Dipper" is an asterism; Ursa Major is the constellation which contains it. Other examples are the "Summer Triangle," "the sickle" of Leo, "the teapot" of Sagittarius.

"person versed in or devoted to science," 1834, a hybrid coined from Latin scientia (see science) by the Rev. William Whewell, English polymath, by analogy with artist, in the same paragraph in which he coined physicist (q.v.). There is an isolated use of sciencist from 1778, and scientician was used in 1885. Scientaster "petty or inferior scientist" is by 1899 (see -aster).

Old English east, eastan (adj., adv.) "east, easterly, eastward;" easte (n.), from Proto-Germanic *aust- "east," literally "toward the sunrise" (source also of Old Frisian ast "east," aster "eastward," Dutch oost Old Saxon ost, Old High German ostan, German Ost, Old Norse austr "from the east"), from PIE root *aus- (1) "to shine," especially of the dawn. The east is the direction in which dawn breaks. For theory of shift in the geographical sense in Latin, see austral.

As one of the four cardinal points of the compass, from c. 1200. Meaning "the eastern part of the world" (from Europe) is from c. 1300. Cold War use of East for "communist states" first recorded 1951. French est, Spanish este are borrowings from Middle English, originally nautical. The east wind in Biblical Palestine was scorching and destructive (as in Ezekiel xvii.10); in New England it is bleak, wet, unhealthful. East End of London so called by 1846; East Side of Manhattan so called from 1871; East Indies (India and Southeast Asia) so called 1590s to distinguish them from the West Indies.