Esther
proper nouncommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈɛstə//
- United States//ˈɛstɚ//
A female given name from Persian.
proper noun
- 1
A female given name from Persian.
- 2
A book of the Old Testament and the Hebrew Tanakh.
- 3
The heroine of the Book of Esther.
And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father or mother, and the maiden was fair and beautiful.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek Ἐσθήρ (Esthḗr), from Biblical Hebrew אֶסְתֵּר (ʾestēr). Has been connected to Old Persian 𐎠𐎿𐎫𐎼 (a-s-t-r /star-/, “star”) (whence Middle Persian 𐭮𐭲𐭫 (stl /star/, “star”), 𐭮𐭲𐭠𐭫𐭪 (stʾlk /stārag/, “star”), Persian ستاره (sitāra /setâre, “star”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr (if so, a distant doublet of star); or else to Akkadian 𒀭𒈹 (Ištar, “Ishtar”) (Hebrew עִשְׁתָּר (ʿištār)).