stella erratica

Latin noun
calqued from Greek

Last edited: 2025-05-11
Primary meaning planet
Literal translation wandering star
Variants
stella erratica
erratica stella
Edited by
planet celestial object

“Si erratica,” inquit, “stella esset, in signifero esset.” Quis unum stellis limitem ponit?

‘“If a comet were a planet,” someone said, “it would be in the zodiac.” Who places one boundary for planets?’

— Seneca, Natural Questions 7.24.1

Genre: philosophy
Date: 62/63 CE

Seneca. Natural Questions, Volume II: Books 4-7. Translated by Thomas H. Corcoran. Loeb Classical Library 457. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972. 274-275

Cite this entry
APA (7th)
Meinhardt, K. (2025). stella erratica (Lemma #1864). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1864/
Chicago (Author-Date)
Meinhardt, K. (2025). stella erratica (Lemma #1864). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1864/
MLA (9th)
Meinhardt, K. (2025). stella erratica (Lemma #1864). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1864/
Harvard
Meinhardt, K. (2025) stella erratica (Lemma #1864), The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. Available at: https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1864/ (Accessed: December 1, 2025).
BibTeX 
@misc{zodiac1864,
	note = {[Online; accessed 2025-12-01]},
	author = {Meinhardt, Kierán},
	year = {2025},
	title = {stella erratica ({Lemma} #1864)},
	url = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1864/},
	howpublished = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1864/},
}