Mirach en · PROPN
Pronunciation
- mīʹrăk
- /ˈmaɪræk/
- mēʹrăk
Etymology
Perhaps a corruption of Arabic مِئْزَر (miʔzar).
Meanings
-
A red giant, visible as a second-magnitude orange-red star marking the waist or girdle of the chained woman in the northern constellation of Andromeda.
[Mirach was described in the Alfonsine Tables of 1521 as super mirat, from which has been derived its present title, as well as the occasional forms Mirac, Merach, Mirar, Mirath, Mirax, etc.; mirat probably coming from the 1515 Almagest's super mizar, the Arabic mi'zar, a girdle or waist-cloth. Scaliger, the great critical scholar of the 15th century, adopted this Mizar as a title, and Riccioli followed him in its use, thus confounding the star with ζ Ursae Majoris.]
1899, Richard Hinckley Allen, Star-Names and Their Meanings, New York: G. E. Stechert, page 36: