The English Words Sun and Sol in Your Language
Our sun is a sun, but its name is Sol. Sun is a generic term.
I used a translator to translate the following sentence into Spanish
and French.
The name of the sun is sol.
In Spanish it came up with:
El nombre del sol es solenoide.
Solenoid is not the name of the sun.
A similar thing happened with French.
What is sun and Sol in your language?
Thanks in advance.
In Dutch 'our sun' is called 'de zon' (the Sun) and 'a sun' is called a 'ster' , or 'star' in English.
" Our sun is a sun, but its name is Sol. Sun is a generic term. "
In English the generic term is not "star" ?? So, What is the difference between "sun" and "star" ?
In french the name of our sun/star is "Soleil" - and the generic term is "étoile" (star).
Sometimes it can be possible to call all stars "soleils", as well like calling all satellites "Lunes de.../ (...'s moon)" or all planets "autres Terres/(other Earths)"... this is a abuse of language, like calling every city build surounded by water to be a "Venice".
In Spanish "our sun" is called "el sol", and "a sun" is called "una estrella"
In Swedish we say "sol" and "solen"= the sun.
"star" is "stjärna" and "stjärnan" is the star, "stjärnor"= stars, and finally "stjärnorna"= the stars
"In English the generic term is not "star" ?? So, What is the difference between "sun" and "star" ? "
Each solar system has a sun. The one in our solar system happens to be called "The Sun" (note the capitalisation), sometimes "Sol".
When viewed from a broader perspective, usually at the galactic level, the word "star" is preferred over "sun", BUT not all stars are suns. Stars are galaxies, nebulae, pulsar, suns or whatever other heavenly object you can see shining in the night sky.
Stars are galaxies, nebulae, pulsars, suns or whatever other heavenly object you can see shining in the night sky. * Not planets or moons.
=>Stars are galaxies<=
No... :-) A star is a massive body of plasma in outer space which is currently producing or has produced energy through nuclear fusion. Unlike a planet, from which most light is reflected, a star emits light because of its intense heat.
And a galaxy is a large gravitationally bound system of stars, interstellar gas and dust, plasma and unseen dark matter. Typical galaxies contain 10 million to one trillion (107 to 1012) or more stars, all orbiting a common center of gravity. In addition to single stars and a tenuous interstellar medium, most galaxies contain a large number of multiple star systems and star clusters as well as various types of nebulae.
[From wikipedia]
En français « soleil » [solEj] s'emploie pour notre soleil local comme pour celui de tous les autres systèmes solaires de la galaxie et d'ailleurs. On dit aussi l' « astre solaire » en parlant de notre soleil (par opp. à l'astre lunaire). Mais le soleil est aussi une étoile comme les autres.
Fr <astre> [astR] vient de La <astrum—astri> et/ou La <aster—asteris>, les deux étant des "corps célestes".
Fr <étoile> [etwal] vient de AF <esteile> / <estoille>, les deux étant des "astres visibles à l'œil nu (sauf la lune et le soleil)".
AF <esteile> / <estoille> viennent de La <stella—stellæ>.
La <sidus—sideris> = "constellation (d'étoiles)".
Fr <soleil> vient de La <sol—solis> via LV <soliculus> via AF <soleil> / <soleill> / <soleilz> / <solaux> / <soleuz>.
« Sol » est le nom latin du soleil comme dans « sol invictus » = "soleil invincible" ou "soleil invaincu".
"=>Stars are galaxies<=
No... :-) A star is a massive body of plasma in outer space which is currently producing or has produced energy through nuclear fusion. Unlike a planet, from which most light is reflected, a star emits light because of its intense heat. "
If a "star" is defined as a luminous body in the night sky, then galaxies that appear as single entities can be described as "stars"; the same can be said for other gaseous masses, whether they are clusters or not.
The more technical the analysis is, then the more a "star" is differentiated from a "galaxy" or other phenomenon in the universe.
Yes, in English, informally, we refer to anything we see twinkling in the sky at night a "star". However, as most of us have taken astronomy, we know the things we see twinkling the the night sky aren't really all stars. We know real "stars" are what Sander posted (from Wikipedia).
In English, we call our sun "The Sun" and it is a star, focusing on the technical classification. It's true that not all stars are suns, but as we've already covered that the things seen twinkling in the night are not really all stars and anybody that's taken an astronomy class knows that, we'll move onto the fact that there are many different classes of stars - namely some our like are sun, and will be called suns, but others are red giants, about to explode. Our Sun will one day become that. There are other classes, but I'm not going to discuss that.
This is the difference between sun and star Bernard. Star is the blanket term, and Sun is a specification of a star.
Guest, our science is the same as science in every other language, so of course the Sun is a star and the word star (the scientific term) cannot be used to refer to whatever "heavenly object you can see shining in the night sky." The word "star" used to describe those things instead is just a term we use without any greater scientific impact, a layman's term for what he sees above him. I think every language has the same diffrentiation, whether they use the same word or not (I'm pretty sure most indo-european languages use the two definitions of "Star" in the way we do, but I could be wrong).
By the way, in Italian:
The Sun is "il sole" and it is "una stella".
There's more than one definition of "star"; it isn't restricted to the one given to it in Astronomy circles:
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=star
"1 a : a natural luminous body visible in the sky especially at night "
Since these discussions relate to linguistics.... in a literary work, I wouldn't consider this usage as informal or layman-like. An explicit scientific term would be inappropriate in such a context.
I never said it wasn't a valid definition Guest. I myself will refer to anything twinkling in the sky as a star (except when they're move quickly, then they are most likely airplanes).
I just was making the point that both you are Sander are correct, Sander in his technical definition and you with your more literary definition. I agree informal and layman were not the best descriptions. Literary is much better! I couldn't think of the right word at the time though.