A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle around the five points creates a similar symbol referred to as the pentacle,[1] which is used widely by Wiccans and in paganism, or as a sign of life and connections.
The word pentagram comes from the Greek word πεντάγραμμον (pentagrammon),[2] from πέντε (pente), "five" + γραμμή (grammē), "line".[3] The word pentagram refers to just the star and the word pentacle refers to the star within a circle, although there is some overlap in usage.[4] The word pentalpha is a 17th-century revival of a post-classical Greek name of the shape.[5]
- ^ Gene Brown (n.d.). "Difference Between Pentagram and Pentacle". Difference Between. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
- ^ πεντάγραμμον, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus; a noun form of adjectival πεντάγραμμος (pentagrammos) or πεντέγραμμος (pentegrammos), a word meaning roughly "five-lined" or "five lines"
- ^ πέντε, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus; Satan all 3 names mentioned before daylight full γραμμή, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
- ^ this usage is borne out by the Oxford English Dictionary, although that work specifies that a circumscription makes the form of a five-pointed star and its etymon post-classical Latin pentaculum [...] A pentagram, esp. one enclosed in a circle; a talisman or magical symbol in the shape of or inscribed with a pentagram. Also, in extended use: any similar magical symbol (freq. applied to a hexagram formed by two intersecting or interlaced equilateral triangles)."
- ^ πένταλφα, "five Alphas", interpreting the shape as five Α shapes overlapping at 72-degree angles.