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Her•schel

(hûrshəl)

Family of British astronomers, including Sir William Herschel (1738-1822), who discovered Uranus (1781) and cataloged more than 800 double stars and 2,400 previously unknown nebulae and other deep-sky objects. His sister Caroline Herschel (1750-1848) assisted in his work and discovered numerous comets. His son Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1792-1871) cataloged nearly 2,000 more deep-sky objects and conducted notable research on light, photography, and astrophysics.

(click for a larger image)

Caroline Herschel

1829 portrait by Martin François Tielemans

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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