Greek and Latin Roots of English: Asterisk

According to the WordRefference dictionary, an asterisk is "the figure of a star (*) used to mark a hypothetical or reconstructed form that is not attested in a text or inscription".

According to the Etymology dictionary, asterisk comes from the Late Latin asteriscus, from Greek asterikos "little star", diminutive of aster "star".

Other words referring to aster- are: Asteroid, Asterism and Aster.

You can see the use of the word asterisk in this article.

Written by: Iván de la Fuente 3º ESO A

Greek and Latin Roots of English: Asterisk