Terminologia astronomică populară într-un text inedit de la 1896

The aim of our article is to analyse the popular astronomical terminology found in a small text from 1896, inserted into a manuscript that includes answers to Densușianu's Historical Questionnaire. In the Memoriu sent by the teacher Sava Demetrescu, we identified different popular names for some stars and constellations or variants of some known names: the noun Lup, the popular equivalent for the star Alcor, Vaca for Vega and Vițelul probably for Zeta1 Lyrae, Cireada for the constellation Văcarul, Vârtelnița for the constellation Pegasus. The text also attests to the variant Brâul lui Arion for the Brâul lui Orion, Polara for Steaua Polară and the variant oiștie, not recorded in Romanian dictionaries, of the noun oiște. The pages we analysed represent only a small sample of the rich (socio)linguistic, ethnographic, historical and cultural information from the end of the 19th century, as found in the answers to the questionnaires initiated by scholars such as Odobescu, Hasdeu, Densușianu, Otescu.