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 J E Cabot, editor, 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 T Coleridge, “ 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