Dictionary

stellify en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈstɛl.ɪ.faɪ/ (UK, US)
• (US) audio

Etymology

From Middle English stellifien (“to make into a star; glorify, deify”), from Middle French stellifier, from Medieval Latin stellificāre, itself from Latin stella (“star”) + faciō (“make, do”).

Meanings

1. (transitive) To transform from an earthly body into a celestial body; to place in the sky as such
   • In Classical mythology, being stellified was about the greatest posthumous honor for a mortal.
   • By the 'hissing snake' Spenser presumably means the scorpion sent by Diana that killed Orion. Like Orion it, too, was stellified. But since, as Scorpio, it rises in the east as Orion's sign sets in the west, the two were regarded as being kept forever apart, Orion perpetually avoiding in the heavens his vanquisher on earth. 1983, Douglas Brooks-Davies, The Mercurian Monarch: magical politics from Spenser to Pope, page 31:
2. (transitive) To turn into a star.
   • An alternative way to stellify the planet may be to not collapse Jupiter, but instead to introduce a collapsed object into its core. 1989, Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, 109: 75:

Forms

Translations (4)

fi muuttaa tähdeksi (mythology: to transform from an earthly body into a celestial body) · fi muuttaa tähdeksi (astronomy: to turn into a star) · fr stellifier (mythology: to transform from an earthly body into a celestial body) · ru превраща́ть в звезду́ (mythology: to transform from an earthly body into a celestial body)