different between asterism vs cond

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ?????????? (asterismós, “group of stars”), from ????? (ast?r, “star”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?ast???z?m/

Noun

asterism (plural asterisms)

1. (astronomy) An unofficial constellation (small group of stars that forms a visible pattern).

   The Big Dipper, Summer Triangle, and Orion's Belt are asterisms.

   • 1825, Geo G. Carey, Astronomy, as it is known at the present day, London, p. 66 f.:

     Of the constellations, or asterisms. [...] It therefore became necessary to adopt a more general method of distinguishing them. This was accomplished by portioning out the heavens into imaginary figures, of men, birds, fishes, &c. called Constellations or Asterisms.
2. A rarely used typographical symbol (?, three asterisks arranged in a triangle), used to call attention to a passage or to separate subchapters in a book.
3. (mineralogy) A star-shaped figure exhibited by some crystals by reflected light (as in a star sapphire) or by transmitted light (as in some mica).

Related terms

• aster
• asterisk
• asteroid

Translations

See also

• syzygy

Anagrams

• Reitsmas, Ritsemas, St. Maries, maisters, maistres, misrates, semistar, smarties

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?nd

Etymology 1

Clipping.

Adjective

cond (not comparable)

1. Clipping of conditional.

Etymology 2

From Middle English conduen, condien, French conduire (“to conduct”), from Latin conducere.

Verb

cond (third-person singular simple present conds, present participle conding, simple past and past participle conded)

1. Obsolete spelling of con (“direct or steer a ship”)
   • 1922, Publications of the Navy Records Society:

     Sometimes he who conds the ship will be speaking to him at helm at every little yaw; which the sea-faring men love not, as being a kind of disgrace to their steerage; then in mockage they will say, sure the channel is narrow he conds so thick […]

Further reading

• cond in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• no-CD