asterisk

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English asterisk [and other forms], from Late Latin asteriscus (“asterisk; small star”), from Ancient Greek ἀστερῐ́σκος (asterískos, “asterisk; small star”), from ᾰ̓στήρ (astḗr, “celestial body (star, planet, and other lights in the sky such as meteors)”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eHs- (“to burn; to glow”)) + -ῐ́σκος (-ískos, diminutive suffix). Sense 1.1.2 (“something which is of little importance or which is marginal”) refers to the use of an asterisk to denote a footnote or marginal note in a text; in other words, information that is not important enough to be incorporated into the main text. Sense 1.1.3 (“blemish in an otherwise outstanding achievement”) refers to the use of an asterisk in a sporting record to indicate that the record is qualified in some manner (for example, that the sportsperson was found to have taken performance-enhancing drugs at the time). The verb is derived from the noun.

noun

1. (dated) A small star; also (by extension), something resembling or shaped like a star.
   1. The star-shaped symbol *, which is used in printing and writing for various purposes, including to refer a reader to a note at the bottom of a page or in a margin, and to indicate the omission of letters or words; a star.
      1. Something resembling or shaped like an asterisk symbol.
         Using a crafting knife, cut a small asterisk shape in the center of each black circle. Gently pierce each asterisk with a wooden skewer to make a hole. Once done, simply insert your stove knobs, and you're almost ready! 2016, Courtney Sanchez, “Retro Stove”, in DIY Box Creations: Fun and Creative Projects to Make out of Really Big Boxes!, Lake Forest, Calif.: Walter Foster Jr., Quarto Publishing Group, page 48
      2. (figurative) Something which is of little importance or which is marginal; a footnote.
         I don't want to be an asterisk in my kids' lives. I don't want to be just some guy who sporadically appears and then disappears again. 2016, Charles [Wesley] Marshall, “More SkyMiles, Less Family”, in The Good Dad Guide, Eugene, Or.: Harvest House Publishers, part 6 (Prevent), page 142
         The opposing view sees it as an abject failure and historically irrelevant. This verdict was neatly summed up by the New York Times financial columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin when he predicted, a year on from the event: "It will be an asterisk in the history books, if it gets a mention at all." 12 September 2021, Andrew Anthony, “‘We showed it was possible to create a movement from almost nothing’: Occupy Wall Street 10 years on”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-01-20
      3. (US, sports, figurative) A blemish in an otherwise outstanding achievement.
         They came into the tournament highly ranked, but with a little bit of an asterisk as their last two wins had been unconvincing.
   2. (Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism) An instrument with radiating arms resembling a star which is placed over the diskos (or paten) used during the Eucharist to prevent the veil covering the chalice and diskos from touching the host on the diskos.
      Then he [the deacon] reverently covereth the holy Cup with the veil. Likewise he placeth the Asterisk upon the holy Diskos, and the veil over it, and saith the following prayer with the Priest, silently, […] 1866, John Chrysostom, “Liturgy of the Catechumens”, in [anonymous], transl., Service of the Divine and Sacred Liturgy of Our Holy Father John Chrysostom.[…], London: Joseph Masters,[…], →OCLC, pages 69–70
      The asterisk is one of the sacred objects used in the Byzantine rite. It is placed on the paten to protect the Eucharistic bread from contact with the special veil that covers it. The name derives from the shape of the object and symbolically recalls the Biblical words: "And the star came and stood above where the child was" […] Matthew 2:9]. 1962, Marvin C. Ross, “Copper”, in Catalogue of the Byzantine and Early Mediaeval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, volume 1 (Metalwork, Ceramics, Glass, Glyptics, Painting), Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Trustees for Harvard University, published 1970, →OCLC, paragraph 89, page 73
      The diskos, then, typifies the heavens, and for that reason, it is round, and holds the Master of heaven. What is called the ‘asterisk’ represents the stars, especially the one at the birth of Christ, just as the veils represent the firmament, the swaddling clothes, the shroud, and the burial cloths. 2013, Bryan D[ouglas] Spinks, quoting Symeon of Thessalonica (in translation), “The Eucharist and Anaphoras of the Byzantine Synthesis”, in Do This in Remembrance of Me: The Eucharist from the Early Church to the Present Day (SCM Studies in Worship and Liturgy), London: SCM Press, page 126

verb

1. (transitive) To mark or replace (text, etc.) with an asterisk symbol (*; noun sense 1.1); to star.
   Bank of New Zealand Estates Company Share Account now stands, as we have already seen, at £1,089,722 17s. 7d., a reduction of £760,177 2s. 5d. having been effected by the writing off of share capital. But from the point of view of its intrinsic value, the item has still to be dealt with, being asterisked in the balance sheet as follows: […] 1896 August, The Australasian Insurance, Banking Record, quotees, “The Bank of New Zealand’s Balance Sheet”, in Clement H. Davis, editor, The Bankers’ Magazine of Australasia. An Illustrated Monthly, volume X, number 1, Melbourne, Vic.: Bankers’ Instituteo of Australasia, →OCLC, page 43
   She was determined to make the most of the trip, extracting some cultural capital from the emotional waste, and so read carefully through the Venice guidebooks she had brought, underlining the must-dos and asterisking the should-dos. 2003, Rebecca Campbell, “Odette in Venice”, in Slave to Love[…], New York, N.Y.: Villard Books, page 95
   [Alain] Jaubert's preface is the longest and most detailed in our corpus; […] It covers both [Edgar Allan] Poe's work in general and the specific content of the volume (Jaubert, ingeniously, adopts an ad hoc typographical device, asterisking the references to the tales of his volume). 2020, Christopher Rollason, “Popular Poe Anthologies in the United Kingdom and France”, in Emron Esplin, Margarida Vale de Gato, editors, Anthologizing Poe: Editions, Translations, and (Trans)National Canons, Bethlehem, Pa.: Lehigh University Press; Lanham, Md.; London: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, part IV (Wor(l)ding Poe Abroad: Anthologizers, Editors, Illustrators, and Translators), page 289