Weekly Georgian Etymology: ვარსკვლავი varsḳvlavi 'star', from Old Georgian ႥႠႰႱႩႳႪႠႥႨ varsḳulavi lit. 'glowing knot', compound of Kartvelian roots *var- glow and *sḳv- bind, knot, -l participial suffix, -av thematic suffix. It supplanted a possibly older მასკვლავი masḳvlavi.

The compound is attested early in Old Georgian in a life of Tbilisi's patron St. Abo dating to 786: გარდამოავლინა უფალმან ადგილსა მას ზედა ვარსკულავი მოტყინარჱ, ვითარცა ლამპარი ცეცხლისაჲ "The Lord cast down on that place a blazing star, like a lamp of fire"

Unusually for such a basic lexical item, the word is not monomorphemic. *var- is found reduplicated in words like ვარვარი varvari blazing, burning and ვარვარა varvara heat, while *sḳv is found in numerous forms like ნასკვი nasḳvi knot, დასკვნა dasḳvna conclusion, among others.

Also unusually, it is not reconstructible to the protolg:

Megrelian მურიცხი muricxi
Laz მურუცხი murucxi
Svan ა̄ნტყუა̈სგ ānṭq̇wäsg

The Zan forms go back to *r(a)cx- 'count, calculate, expect', while the Svan form may possibly be from a root *ṭq̇wec- 'for lightning to strike'.

Why such variation? One can only speculate. It perhaps represents an ancient taboo about uttering divine names. It's certain these same roots are associated with notions of astrology in Old Georgian texts: ვარსკულავთ მრიცხველი varsḳulavt mricxveli astrologer 'counter of stars'

Whether or not that's true, it's also clear the same root was used to refer to a variety of heavenly bodies, not just stars sensu stricto:

მარეხვარსკვლავი Marexvarsḳvlavi Mars
შუქურვარსკვლავი Šukurvarsḳvlavi Venus
ქუდიანი ვარსკვლავი kudiani varsḳvlavi comet, lit capped star

In very recent times, the root is also the source of a calque of the Latin (or Russian) word for constellation: თანავარსკვლავედი tanavarsḳvlavedi. This replaced the older კრებული ḳrebuli lit. 'gathering' and მწყობრება mc̣q̇obreba lit. 'harmony'.