pole star

From pole (“either of the two points on the Earth’s surface around which it rotates; similar points on any other rotating object”) +‎ star,^[1] possibly a calque of Latin stēllam polārem (“the Pole Star”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpəʊl stɑː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpoʊl ˌstɑɹ/

pole star (plural pole stars)

2. (astronomy) The star visible to the naked eye which was in the past, is now, or will be in the future nearest a celestial pole of a planet.

   Synonyms: polar star, (obsolete) pole arctic

   Polaris is currently the pole star of planet Earth.

   • 1837 August 31, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar. An Oration Delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, at Cambridge, August 31, 1837.”, in Nature, Addresses, and Lectures (Emerson’s Complete Works; I), Riverside edition, London: The Waverley Book Company, published 1883, →OCLC, page 84:

     Who can doubt that poetry will revive and lead in a new age, as the star in the constellation Harp, which now flames in our zenith, astronomers announce, shall one day be the pole-star for a thousand years?

3. (figuratively) A person, principle, or thing which acts as a guide; a guiding light; also, something which attracts much attention; a centre of attention.

   Synonyms: cynosure, guide star, guiding star, lodestar

   • 1817, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Satyrane’s Letters. Letter II. (To a Lady.)”, in Biographia Literaria; or Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions, volume II, London: Rest Fenner, […], →OCLC, pages 214–215:

     But it [our hotel] has one great advantage for a stranger, by being in the market place, and the next neighbour of the huge church of St. Nicholas: […] A better pole-star could scarcely be desired.

   • 1889 June–November, Hall Caine, “Strong Knots of Love”, in The Bondman. A New Saga. […], volume II (The Book of Michael Sunlocks), London: William Heinemann, published January 1890, →OCLC, page 118:

     Love was her pole-star. What was Jason's? Only the blankness of despair.

• Regarding sense 1, due to the precession of the equinoxes, Earth’s northern pole star—which is currently Polaris—was a different star in the past and will be a different star in the future.^[1] There is presently no southern pole star.

• polestar, pole-star

• lodestar, north star, North Star

• pole star on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “pole star, n.”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “pole star, n.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.
• “pole star, n.”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• prolates, Portelas, portsale, Palestro, Plateros, Portales, Laportes, petrosal, patroles, LaPortes