Etymograph

English

stellify

Stellify comes from Medieval Latin stellificāre.

  1. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500stellificāre1
  2. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600stellifier1
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500stellifien1‘to make into a star’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1983stellify1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English stellify
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1983, Douglas Brooks-Davies, The Mercurian Monarch: magical politics from Spenser to Pope: “By the 'hissing snake' Spenser presumably means the scorpion…”.

Lineage

  1. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500stellificāreWiktionary, English stellify
  2. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600stellifierWiktionary, English stellify
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500stellifienWiktionary, English stellify‘to make into a star’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1983stellifyWiktionary, English stellify. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1983, Douglas Brooks-Davies, The Mercurian Monarch: magical politics from Spenser to Pope: “By the 'hissing snake' Spenser presumably means the scorpion…”

A compound of stella ‘star’ + faciō ‘make, do’

Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₁s- ‘to burn, glow’

Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr ‘star’

Proto-Italic *stērlā ‘star’

Latin stella ‘star’

Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁k-

Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁kyéti

Proto-Italic *θakjō

Proto-Italic *fakjō ‘to make’

Latin faciō ‘make, do’

Every English word from Medieval Latin stellificāre

Today it means

verb To transform from an earthly body into a celestial body; to place in the sky as such

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “stellify”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Medieval Latin stellificāre / stellify

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