Etymology

octans

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Today it means: A small circumpolar constellation of the southern sky, said to resemble an octant. It lies closest to the southern celestial pole of any constellation. Full definition →

Latin octans
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromoctans“an octant”
  2. English todayOctans

Named by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1763. From Latin octans (“an octant”). Doublet of octant.

Words from the same roots

Latinoctans all →

octant

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.