Betelgeuse

Origin

Ultimately from an alteration of the Arabic يَد الجَوْزَاء (yad al-jawzāʔ, “hand of the central one (i.e., Orion)”), from يَد (yad, “hand”) + جَوْزَاء (jawzāʔ, “central one”). Jawzā, ‘the central one’, initially referred to Gemini among the Arabs, but the name was later transferred to Orion. During the Middle Ages the first character of the name, yā’ (ي, with two underdots), was misread as a bā’ (ب, with one underdot) when transliterating into Latin, thus *Yedalgeuze became Bedalgeuze. This was then misinterpreted during the Renaissance as deriving from a corruption of an original Arabic form إِبْط الجَوْزَاء (ʔibṭ al-jawzāʔ, “armpit of the central one”).