• Arabic Fam al-Hut or Famm-al-Hut, the "Mouth-of-the-Fish."
• Other sources call it Fum al Hut, "Mouth of the fish."
• Sumerian KU₆, Akkadian nunu, "The Fish," Piscis Austrinus, a Fomalhaut (Arabic, fish's mouth).   
  • From www.lexline.com, "The Fish (KU₆) d.Ea, the lead star of the stars of Ea."
  • Sumerian ku₆, kua: fish (kú, 'food', + a, 'water').
    • Sumerian *ha: fish (pronounced cha, but not the usual word for fish, but the fish sign may get its syllabic reading of HA from *h 'many' + a 'water' = 'fish', an alternative to the usual ku₆, kua).
      • Arabic Famm-al-Hut, or Fomalhaut is the "Mouth-of-the-Fish."
      • Sumero-Akkadian Sila-Da-Kha-Bi.
        • Sumerian sìla, šál: measure of capacity - 0.842 liter in the Neo-Sumerian period; measuring pot (si₁₄, 'a small pot', + lá, 'to weigh'; but cp. also, sal, 'uterus').
      • Sumerian a-dar-tún^ku6: a fish ('water' + 'to slice' + 'to smash').
      • Sumerian ku: to base, found, build; to lie down (reduplication class).
      • Sumerian kú: (cf., gu₇).
      • Sumerian kù: (cf., kug).
      • Sumerian ku₄: (cf., kur₉).
      • Sumerian ku₅: (cf., kud).
      • Sumerian ku₇: (cf., kuruš).
      • Sumerian ku₁₀: (cf., gíg).
    • Sumerian enku: fishing overseer (en, 'lord', + ku₆/kua, 'fish'; same signs (ZAG.HA) as ešsad).
      • Sumerian ešsad: fisherman (éše, 'rope', + sud, 'to immerse, sink'; same signs (ZAG.HA) as enku).
        • Sumerian zag, zà: boundary, border, limit, side; territory, district; sanctuary; percentage; a measure for fish; shoulder; right (side); front; outside of.
  • Akkadian nunu.
    • Allen states the constellation name for Pisces in the Babylonian was Nunu, and in Syriac Nuno.
    • Sumerian agargara^ku6 [NUNtenû]: a fish.
      • Sumerian nun: n., prince, noble, master, adj., great, noble, fine.
    • Note: -a-a or -A-A NUN-HU, The Great Sea-Lord, Nanshe.
      • Sumerian hu: bird (earlier word than mušen).
      • Sumerian hu-luh, ha-luh: to scare; to become scared, frightened ('birds/fish' + 'to sweep away').
      • Urash was the First Phoenician Dynasty for "Sea Lord," the sign of "the great Fish" or "Sea Serpent of the Deep."
      • In the Egyptian standard he calls himself "The Great Sea Lord of the Lands of the Seven Seas."    Nanshe, goddess of fish.
        • Sumerian abzu: the 'sentient' sea - the sea personified as a god (aba/ab, 'sea' + zu, 'to know').
          • Sumerian aba, ab: lake; sea.
  • Babylonian-Assyrian Nunnagabi.
• In Pisces the star b Piscium (no name) primary to the right of the circle of stars is claimed to be named Fum al Sa'makah, which means "the fish's mouth."
  • Al Samaca is one of the brightest stars and means "The Upheld."
    • Isaiah 41:10 "I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."
    • Hebrew samak, saw-mak', a primary root to prop (lit. or fig.), reflex, to lean upon or take hold of.
    • In the "Gospel of the Stars," by Joseph Seiss, page 82 "Al Samaca, the Upheld."
    • Rolleston "Arabic Al Samaca, the upheld."
  • Other names for b Piscium: Al sem'cha (Chilmead), Al Sam'akah, Al Sam'akatain, Sam'eh.
• Other names for Fomalhaut: Pham Al Hut, Al Difdi'al Aw'wal, Difda al Auwel. The "First Frog," Fomalo', Phomalhaut', Thalin (Eri), Al Ri'al or Zibal (stars between Achemar and Fomalhaut).
  • One source claims Fomalhaut is one of the four Royal stars or Guardians of the Sky mentioned by Zarathustra around 3,000 B.C. with its Persian name Haftorang in the winter solstice (Watcher of the North).
  • Richard H. Allen comments on the following:
        From the Arabic Fum al Hut, the Fish's Mouth, has long been the common name for this star, Smyth saying that Fom Alhout Al-genubi appears, with its translation Os Piscis Meridiani, in a still existing manuscript almanac of 1340.
        Aratos distinctly mentioned it as One large and bright by both the Power's feet,
        Bayer cites it, in Piscis Notius (Piscis Austrinus), as Fumahant, Fumahaut recfius Fumalhaut;
        Chilmead, Phom Ahut;
        Caesius has Fomahand and Fontabant;
        Riccioli's names for it are Fomauth, Phomaut, Phomault, Phomant, Phomaant, Phomhaut, Phomelhaut;
        La Caille's, Phomalhaut;
        La Lande's are Fumalhant, Fomahaut, and Phomahant;
        and Schickard's, Fomalcuti.
        Costard gives it as Fomahout;
        and Sir William Herschel had it Fomalhout.
        More correctly than all these, Hyde wrote it Pham Al Hut.    Burritt's Atlas has the present form Fomalhaut, but his Planisphere, Fomalhani.    It generally, but wrongly, is pronounced Fomalo, as though from the French.
        Among early Arabs Fomalhaut was Al Difdi’ al Awwal, the First Frog; and in its location on the Borgian globe is the word Thalim, the Ostrich, evidently another individual title.
        Flammarion says that it was Hastorang in Persia 3000 B.C., when near the winter solstice, and a Royal Star, one of the four Guardians of Heaven, sentinels watching over other stars; while about 500 B.C. it was the object of sunrise worship in the temple of Demeter at Eleusis; and still later on, with astrologers, portended eminence, fortune, and power.

    Other stars not shown here are:
e, l, h, J, i, m, t, and p to round out the 12 stars of Piscis Austrinus.

Return to Constellation Names of Piscis Austrinus.