Aspect: In astrology, an 'aspect' is the… | etymologist.ai
aspect
/ˈæs.pɛkt/·noun·c. 1380·Established
Origin
From Latin 'aspicere' (to look toward) — the modern sense of a facet grew from the insight that what we seedepends on viewing angle.
Definition
A particular part or feature of something; the appearance or look of something; the direction a building or window faces; in grammar, the way a verb expresses the flow of time.
The Full Story
Latin14th centurywell-attested
From Latin 'aspectus' (a looking at, sight, appearance, countenance), past participle of 'aspicere' (to look at, to gaze upon), a compound of 'ad-' (to, toward) and 'specere' (to look, to see). Latin 'specere' descends from PIE *speḱ- (to look, to observe), one of the most fertile visual roots in the language family, also producingSanskrit स्पशति (spaśati, he sees), Greek σκέπτομαι (sképtomai, I look carefully — whence 'skeptic'), and Old High German 'spehōn' (to spy). From 'specere' alone English inherits 'spectacle,' 'specimen,' '
Did you know?
In astrology, an 'aspect' is the angular relationship betweentwo celestial bodies — literally, the way they 'look at' each other across the sky. A conjunction (0°), opposition (180°), and square (90°) areall aspects. This wasone of the word's earliest English
of an action — perfective, imperfective, etc.) was borrowed from Slavic linguistic tradition in the 19th century, metaphorically extending 'the angle of looking' to 'the angle from which an action is viewed in time.' Key roots: specere (Latin: "to look at, to observe"), ad- (Latin: "to, toward"), *speḱ- (Proto-Indo-European: "to observe, to look").