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Origin and history of Astarte

Astarte

name of a Phoenician goddess identified by the Greeks with their Aphrodite, from Greek Astarte, from Phoenician Astoreth (plural Ashtaroth), equivalent to Assyrian Ishtar. Apparently properly a virginal goddess of the moon or the heavens, but she has been frequently confounded since Biblical times with the sensual Ashera (see Asherah).

Entries linking to Astarte

Asherah(n.)

wooden pillar used as symbol of the Canaanite goddess Ashera, 1839, a name of unknown origin.

Ishtar

ancient Sumero-Babylonian goddess of love and fertility, counterpart of Phoenician Astarte (q.v.), from Akkadian Ishtar.

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    sustain
    late 13c., sustenen, transitive, "provide the necessities of life to;" by early 14c. as "give support to (an effort or cause); also in physical senses, "keep from falling or sinking, hold up or upright;" also "give assistance to; keep (a quarrel, etc.) going." It is from the stem
    exacerbation
    "act of exacerbating; state of being exacerbated; increase of violence or virulence, aggravation," c. 1400, exacerbacioun, from Late Latin exacerbationem (nominative exacerbatio), noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin exacerbare "exasperate, irritate, provoke," from e
    heaven
    Old English heofon "home of God," earlier "the visible sky, firmament," probably from Proto-Germanic *hibin-, a dissimilation of *himin- (source also of Low German heben, Old Norse himinn, Gothic himins, Old Frisian himul, Dutch hemel, German Himmel "heaven, sky"), which is of un
    coordinate
    1640s, "of the same order, belonging to the same rank or degree," from Medieval Latin coordinatus, past participle of coordinare "to set in order, arrange," from assimilated form of com "with, together" (see com-) + ordinatio "arrangement," from ordo "row, rank, series, arrangeme
    dearth
    c. 1300, derthe "scarcity of food," of other situations of scarcity by mid-14c., abstract noun from root of Old English deore "precious, costly" (see dear) + abstract noun suffix -th (2). A common Germanic formation, though not always with the same sense (Old Saxon diurtha "splen
    function
    1530s, "one's proper work or purpose; power of acting in a specific proper way," from French fonction (16c.) and directly from Latin functionem (nominative functio) "a performance, an execution," noun of action from funct-, past-participle stem of fungi "perform, execute, dischar
    Babylon
    mid-14c., Babilon, representing the Greek rendition of Akkadian Bab-ilani "the gate of the gods," from bab "gate" + ilani, plural of ilu "god" (compare Babel). The Old Persian form, Babiru-, shows characteristic transformation of -l- to -r- in words assimilated from Semitic. The
    Vatican
    1550s, from Latin mons Vaticanus, Roman hill on which Papal palace stands. By Klein's sources said to be an Etruscan loan-word and unrelated to vates "soothsayer, prophet, seer" (see vates), but most others seem to think it is related, on the notion of "hill of prophecy" (compare
    scissors
    "pair of shears of medium or small size," late 14c., sisoures, also cisours, sesours, cisurs, etc., from Old French cisoires (plural) "shears," from Vulgar Latin *cisoria (plural) "cutting instrument," from *cisus (in compounds such as Latin excisus, past participle of excidere "
    bull
    "male of a bovine animal," c. 1200, bule, from Old Norse boli "bull, male of the domestic bovine," perhaps also from an Old English *bula, both from Proto-Germanic *bullon- (source also of Middle Dutch bulle, Dutch bul, German Bulle), perhaps from a Germanic verbal stem meaning "

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