stargazer means someone who gazes at the stars; an astronomer or astrologer (now especially an amateur one). It carries an Arena rating of 1578, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, stargazer ranks #1,042 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #1,132 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #1,679 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,195 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words.
stargazer is pronounced /ˈstɑɹˌɡeɪzɚ/.
Why “stargazer” is a great word
A person who observes the stars with sustained attention, especially an amateur, or a bottom-dwelling marine fish with upward-facing eyes. From star + gazer (one who looks steadily). Unlike "astronomer," which implies the rigor of a scientific discipline, or "daydreamer," which suggests an idle, interior fancy, a stargazer is anchored in the literal, physical act of looking skyward. It is the amateur on a hillside with a borrowed telescope, tracing the dust of Orion's belt; the grotesque fish half-buried in ocean silt, awaiting prey in a narrow cone of light; and the child flat on her back in summer grass, learning the dipper by heart—all patient, hopeful tilts toward the distant and luminous, where looking up is itself a kind of prayer.
Etymology
From star + gazer.
noun
- Someone who gazes at the stars; an astronomer or astrologer (now especially an amateur one).e.g.“Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels: let now the astrologers, the starre-gazers, the monethly prognosticators stand vp, and saue thee from these things that shall come vpon thee.” — 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 47:13:
- Any of family Uranoscopidae of bottom-dwelling fish.e.g.“A stargazer is a frightening fish by any sretch of the imagination, but not until the day I first saw one in its own world did I understand its true nature.” — 2001, Richard Flanagan, Gould's Book of Fish, Vintage, published 2016, page 187:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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