almagestn.

Etymology: < (i) Middle French almageste, title of the great astronomical treatise by Ptolemy (a1280 in Old French; French almageste ), and its etymon (ii) post-classical Latin almagesti (from 12th cent. in British sources; also as almagestum ) < Arabic al-majasṭī (late 9th cent. or earlier) < al the + either Middle Iranian mgstyk (9th cent.; the final -k is purely graphic and hypercorrect) or its etymon Byzantine Greek μεγίστη , use as noun (short for μεγίστη σύνταξις greatest composition: see note) of feminine of ancient Greek μέγιστος (see megiston n.). Compare Old Occitan almagestre (1403, with alteration of the ending), Catalan almagest (14th cent.), Spanish almagesto (1417; earlier as †almagest, †almageste (both second half of the 13th cent.)), Italian almagesto (1300; also †almageste (1341)).The original title of Ptolemy’s work appears to have been Μαθηματική σύνταξις ‘mathematical composition’; by the 4th cent. it was known at Alexandria as μεγάλη σύνταξις ‘great composition’; and although the form μεγίστη σύνταξις (also μεγίστη ) is only attested in texts of the late 11th cent. onwards, in all of which it could in theory have been influenced by the Arabic form, it is likely to be the source of the Middle Iranian and, directly or indirectly, the Arabic forms: see P. Kunitzsch Der Almagest (1974) 115–125. In the 17th cent. post-classical Latin almagestum was also used in the title of works on botany (e.g. L. Plukenet Almagestum botanicum (1696)) and astronomy (e.g. G. B. Riccioli Almagestum novum astronomiam veterem novamqve complectens (1651); compare quot. 1715). In form almagestus showing remodelling of the ending after Latin masculine nouns in -us . In form almagesto after the Latin ablative singular.