Meissa
- HIP
- 26207
- Designation
- 39 Lam Ori
- Bayer designation
- λ Ori
- Visual magnitude
- 3.39
- Constellation
- Orion
- Name approved by the IAU
- 2016-07-20
The IAU catalogue's account
From the pre-Islamic Arabian name al-maisan, for either γ or ξ Gem. The meaning of the name is uncertain. It may mean "the Sparkling One," referring to a star, or "the Proudly Marching One," referring to a person. Together, γ and ξ Gem composed the pre-Islamic Arabian 6th lunar mansion alhan'a. The nearby stars λ, ϕ1, and ϕ2 Ori composed the adjacent 5th lunar mansion al-haq'a. Due to confusion between these two parent lunar mansions in a late Arabic source, "Meissa" was wrongly applied to λ Ori (rather than to γ or ξ Gem) in recent times. "Meissa" (without n at the end) corresponds to pre-Islamic Arabian almaisa', a variant form of al-maisan.
- Source language
- Arabic
- Reference
- Kunitzsch, Paul; Smart, Tim (2006). A Dictionary of Modern star Names: A Short Guide to 254 Star Names and Their Derivations (2nd rev. ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Sky Pub.
Source: IAU Catalog of Star Names (IAU-CSN), Working Group on Star Names. The account is the IAU's own text and is quoted in full: it is published under CC BY.
From Kunitzsch & Smart
- Layer of tradition
- Indigenous Arabic
- Ancient-layer signal
- cue found
- Source form
- al-maisän
- Pronounced
- ml' so
- Literal meanings
- the Sparkling One; the Proudly Marching One
- Periods of use
- Recent / modern
- Transmission notes
- uncertain/unknown, error/corruption
Source: Kunitzsch & Smart, A Dictionary of Modern Star Names, 2nd ed. 2006, p. 47
Layer of tradition and ancient-layer signal are not the dictionary authors' judgement but a keyword reading of the entry's wording. “No simple cue found” means exactly that — the parser found none — not that the name is late.
The fields on this card were read off an OCR layer and are not checked against the printed page. The page number is given so the claim can be verified in your own copy.
This star is not part of any chain in the strict sub-corpus.
Other named stars of this constellation: