Link Centre Dictionary

Esther

est·her

UK/ˈɛstə/ US/ˈɛstɚ/ fairly common

noun

1.

(Old Testament) a beautiful Jewess chosen by the king of Persia to be his queen; she stopped a plot to massacre all the Jews in Persia (an event celebrated by Jews as the feast of Purim)

2.

an Old Testament book telling of a beautiful Jewess who became queen of Persia and saved her people from massacre

Synonyms

Origin

From Ancient Greek Ἐσθήρ (Esthḗr), from Biblical Hebrew אֶסְתֵּר (ʾestēr). Has been connected to Old Persian 𐎠𐎿𐎫𐎼 (a-s-t-r /⁠star-⁠/, “star”) (whence Middle Persian 𐭮𐭲𐭫 (stl /⁠star⁠/, “star”), 𐭮𐭲𐭠𐭫𐭪 (stʾlk /⁠stārag⁠/, “star”), Persian ستاره (sitāra /setâre, “star”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr (if so, a distant doublet of star); or else to Akkadian 𒀭𒈹 (Ištar, “Ishtar”) (Hebrew עִשְׁתָּר (ʿištār)).

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.