'Supernova' means 'super-new star' — coined 1934. Ironically, it names the death of an ancient star.
The explosive death of a massive star, resulting in a brief but enormous increase in luminosity that can outshine an entire galaxy; the expanding cloud of gas and debris produced by such an explosion.
Coined by the astronomers Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky from Latin 'super-' (above, beyond) + 'nova' (new), short for 'nova stella' (new star). The term 'nova' (plural 'novae') had been used since the sixteenth century for stars that suddenly appeared in the sky — celestial objects that seemed to be newly born. Baade and Zwicky added 'super-' to distinguish the far more luminous
A supernova is so luminous that it can briefly outshine its entire host galaxy — hundreds of billions of stars — yet the word means merely 'super-new.' The name comes from the historical accident that stars suddenly appearing in the sky were called 'new stars' (novae), even though they are in fact very old stars dying. Astronomy named death 'new