The Slavic word for a “star” is as follows (among others):

• zvijezda (Croatian)
• hvězda (Czech)
• звезда (zvezdá) (Russian)
• звезда, (zvezda) (Serb)
• hviezda (Slovak)
• zvezda (Slovene)
• gwiazda (Polish)

The Ukrainian uses a different word “zorya” (зоря, зірка) etymologically equivalent with the Polish zorza (that is “aurora”) having to do with “shine/heat/sight”.  The Belorussian has both variations: “zorka” (зорка) like the Ukrainian and then zvyazda (звязда) like the other Slavic languages.

Now, all of this is interesting because in virtually every other IE language, the star is an entirely different word:

• stjerne (Danish)
• ster (Dutch)
• Stern (German)
• star (English obviously)
• stjerne (Norwegian)
• stjärna (Swedish)

This not limited to Germanic languages. Same root appears in Latin languages:

• estrella (Spanish, Catalan)
• estrela (Portuguese)
• stella (Italian)
• stea (Romanian)

and beyond:

• astéri (Greek)
• astgh (Armenian)
• setareh, setâre (Persian)
• tāro (Gujarati)
• taara (Hindu)
• tārā (Sanskrit)

even beyond IE:

• izar (Basque)

The word “asterisk” (“little star”) is derived from the “other IE” group. In my view the word “tarot” is also of the same origin.

The only IE group that is cognate with the Slavic languages here is the Baltic group:

•  žvaigždė (Lithuanian)
•  zvaigzne (Latvian)

In fact, there are two separate groups here.  The Slavic/Baltic and other IE. The former have their own star based words but they mean “old”. Strangely, these too might be related and thus, “stare gwiazdy” means “old stars” in Polish.

Why two different roots for the same concept?

Who knows but the Baltic group might provide an interesting hint:

Specifically, compare the Polish gwiazda with the Lithuanian žvaigždė. What happened here is that we have:

• g – v – z in Polish but
• z – v – g in Lithuanian

Someone got inverted it seems… let’s assume that the original version was closer to Lithuanian – so what could that mean?

There is an English word “twig” which also appears in other Germanic languages. For example, in German we have Zweig.

Zweig means a “branch”. And the Lithuanian žvaigždė corresponds to Zweig. How is that again? Well, one way to think of stars (just think of the Zodiac) is as representations of earthly concepts.

A star would then be a branch point from which the imaginary line would lead to another star to sketch out the overall picture.

In fact, one such specific concept would be the concept of a gigantic universal tree where each star is a branch point. This would, of course, be Yggdrasil. How, however, such a concept (with a Germanic origin) became transferred into Baltic and Slavic languages (but only into those), I can’t tell or even begin to guess.

Other interesting things about different “star names”

The Korean name for star is byeol – which sounds like the Slavic byel, meaning whiteness (and which, in the former case, may be connected to various Baal words).

The Maltese word for star is niġma which seems strangely connected with the Latin/Mediterranean  aenigma (although an Arabic etymology exists too – but is it original or itself a derivative?)

Finally, the Breton language – has the word steredenn – stary dzien – old day? Not so fast. Stered means stars and the suffix -enn just serves to create the singular or “singulative” form.

But, Breton (note Bretagne is where the ancient Armorican Veneti fought Caesar) has other interesting words… For example, there is the singulative word for a “tree” – ur wezenn. What is the plural of that word (that is “trees“):

gwez

which would give us the g – v – z form as the original one…

Moreover, as a reader points out citing Brueckner’s Polish etymological dictionary:

“gwozd, gozd, ‘forest’, still known and used in the 15th century, completely forgotten today, the word is preserved in the name for the coat of arms Gozdawa (that is, perhaps, meaning “of the forest”).

Note too that gwóźdź means a “nail” which suggests an etymology for that word as well, that is, that  gwoździe meant “trees”. Similarly, you have the word goździk, an obvious diminutive of gozd, for a carnation. Interestingly, Brueckner himself thought the word gwiazda (star) was cognate with the word kwiat (flower).

Thus we have two potential explanations or at least connections:

• the Germanic – Baltic Zweig version (z – v – g)
• the Breton – Slavic gwez version (g – v – z)

The idea that the world is a tree can also be supported by this image, perhaps alluded to in the picture above already:

When lighting strikes doesn’t that look like roots of a plant or a tree seen from the bottom?

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