Etymology

Ultimately from an alteration of the yad al-jawzā ‘hand of the central one’, from ‘hand’ + ‘central one’.

Jawzā, ‘the central one’, initially referred to Gemini among the Arabs, but at some point they decided to refer to Orion by that name. During the Middle Ages the first character of the name, yā’ (, with two dots under it), was misread as a bā’ (, with one dot under it) when transliterating into Latin, and Yad al-Jauza became Bedalgeuze. This was then misinterpreted during the Renaissance as deriving from a corruption of an original Arabic form ibt al-jawzā ‘armpit of the central one’.

Proper noun

1. A bright-red supergiant intrinsic variable star, the second brightest star in the constellation Orion; Alpha (α) Orionis. It is the tenth brightest star in the nighttime, and one of the largest stars known.