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I'm reading a book and encountered the words star rose. What does it mean? The context is listed below.

As JavaScript’s star rose, discontent came from all corners. Some pointed to its numerous little quirks and inconsistencies. Others complained about its lack of classes and inheritance. And a new generation of coders, who had cut their teeth on Ruby and Python, were stymied by its thickets of curly braces, parentheses, and semicolons.

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2 Answers

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As JavaScript’s star rose

This means "as Javascript became more popular."

Rose is the past tense of rise, and not the flower. Javascript is becoming a rising star, i.e. more popular.

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I disagree with this unless it was written as an awkward metaphor. Star as a noun is not a synonym for popularity. – tenfour Sep 15 '11 at 13:31
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No, it shares the metaphor of "His star is in the ascendant". – Colin Fine Sep 15 '11 at 16:38
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@tenfour, This is a common idiom. Google "star is rising" for the more usual form. "Star rose" is a perfectly acceptable past tense formulation. – Klay Sep 15 '11 at 20:13
I stand corrected – tenfour Sep 15 '11 at 22:45
up vote 1 down vote

This shouldn't be seen as a single phrase "star rose", which seems to imply the rose of a star, but rather, "rose" as the verb, and "star" as the noun.

"Star" here refers to the popularity and fame of Javascript. "Rose" refers to the fact that the popularity and fame of Javascript is increasing ("Rose" as in "rise" past tense). Thus, read:

As Javascript's fame increased (star rose)

I hope that helps.

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