lodestar, loadstar
(ˈləʊdstɑː(r))
Also 4–6 lood(e-, 5–6 lod-, 6 loade-, (lodes-); see star n. β. north. and Sc. 5–6 lade-, 6 leid-, laidsterne, laydsterre.
[f. load, lode + star n. Cf. ON. leiðarstjarna.]
1. A star that shows the way; esp. the pole star.
| c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1201 Calistopee..Was turned from a womman to a Bere And after was she maad the loode sterre. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 199 Þe sterre þat ladde þe Grees whan þey seilled þider [sc. to Hesperia] and was her loode sterre, Hespera, þat is Venus. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xviii. 95 Wederwise sheepmen now..Han no by-leyue to þe lyft ne to þe lood-sterre. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 751 Schipe-mene..Lukkes to þe lade-sterne whene þe lyghte faillez. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) xvii. 180 The Sterre of the See, that is unmevable and that is toward the Northe, that we clepen the Lode Sterre. c 1511 1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.) Introd. 28/1 Yat sowth layd sterre sawe we fourth with. a 1529 Skelton Col. Cloute 1260 Tyll the cost be clere And the lode starre appere. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. (1858) I. 16 Tha had fund rycht far Furth in the north, law vnder the laid star Ane plesand yle. a 1571 Jewel On 2 Thess. (1611) 150 The Master of the ship seemeth to be idle..Hee..looketh vpon the load star, and in appearance doth nothing. 1594 Blundevil Exerc. iii. i. xx. (1636) 321 The Load starre, or North starre. 1616 Bullokar, Lodestar, a Starre that guideth one. 1691 Ray Creation i. (1692) 183 The Load-stone and the Load-star depend both upon this [viz. the steadiness of the earth's axis]. |
2. fig. A ‘guiding star’; that on which one's attention or hopes are fixed.
This sense appears to have been revived at the beginning of the 19th c. after a lapse of some 150 years.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus v. 1392 Biseche I yow myn hertes lady fre. That herevpon ye wolden wryte me, For loue of god my righte lode sterre. 1430–40 Lydg. Bochas i. iii. (1494) b ij, To the hauyn of lyf she was the lode sterre. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxxvii. 10 O hye trivmphing peradiss of joy, Lodsteir and lamp of eivry lustines. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xviii. (Percy Soc.) 83 The bright lodes sterre Of my true herte. 1513 Douglas æneis Prol. 8 Lanterne, leid sterne, mirrour, and a per se. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. (1807–8) III. 134 A paterne in princehood, a lode⁓starre in honour, and mirrour of magnificence. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. i. i. 183 Your eyes are loadstarres. 1641 Milton Reform. i. Wks. 1851 III. 21 Since hee must needs bee the Load-starre of Reformation. 1813 Scott Trierm. Introd. v, The load-star of each heart and eye, My fair one leads the glittering ball. 1818 Shelley Rev. Islam ii. xxi, An orphan with my parents lived, whose eyes Were loadstars of delight, which drew me home When I might wander forth. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xix. IV. 274 The feather in the hat of Lewis was the loadstar of victory. 1861 M. Arnold Pop. Educ. France p. xxiii, The French Revolution became an historic epoch for the world, and France the lode-star of Continental democracy. 1871 Rossetti Poems, Jenny 18 Whose person or whose purse may be The lodestar of your reverie. |