† seven stars Obs.
(Also ME. sterres seven.)
[OE. seofon steorran: see seven and star n., but OE. had also collect. neut. sifun-, sibunsterri = WFris. saunstjerre, WFlem. zeven(ge)sterre, MLG. sevensterne, Du. zevengesternte, OHG. sibunstirni, -stirri (MHG. sibensterne, G. siebenstern and siebengestirn), ON. sjaustirni. Cf. med.L. septistellium.]
a. The Pleiades. b. ? The planets. c. The Great Bear.
| c 725 Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) P 451 Pliadas, sibunsterri. a 900 O.E. Martyrol. 7 Nov. 202 Ond þonne gongað þa seofon steorran up on æfen. 1340–70 Alex. & Dind. 477 Þe sonne set in his cours & þe seue sterres. a 1400–50 Wars Alex. 1961 (Dublin MS.) One of þe souerenest syres vndir þe seuen sternes. 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy ii. 3323 Pliades, þe seuene sterris briȝt, Of whiche sixe apperen to oure siȝt. 1483 Cath. Angl. 331/2 Þe Seven sterns, plias, septemtriolis, septemtrio. 1513 Douglas æneis viii. Prol. 151 The pleuch, and the polys, the planettis begane, The son, the sevin sternis, and the Charll wane. 1535 Coverdale Amos v. 8 [so 1611; Revised 1884 Pleiades]. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 182 b, The best time for the first haruest, the rising of the seuen starres, or the beginning of May. 1605 Shakes. Lear i. v. 38 The reason why the seuen Starres are no mo then seuen, is a pretty reason. 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 85 Where so many kingdomes are united, making a more perspicuous shew over the universe, than the seven starres doe in the Firmament, over the single planets. 1754 J. Hill Urania, Seven Stars, a common denomination of the constellation, called, by astronomers, the Pleiades. [1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xxviii, Mrs. Bickerton, lady of the ascendant of the Seven Stars, in the Castle-gate, York.] |
| 1430–40 Lydg. Bochas i. ii. (1544) 5 b, He would haue raught vp to y⊇ sterres seuen. c 1450 J. Metham Wks. (E.E.T.S.) 10 Hys bryght plowgh of sterrys, and eke the systyrrys at ther stent, The qwyche be namyd the sterrys seuyn. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxv. 66 We pray to all the Sanctis of hevin, That ar aboif the sterris sevin. |