sagitta

See also: Sagitta

English

Etymology

Borrowing from Latin sagitta (“an arrow, shaft, bolt”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /səˈdʒɪt.ə/
• Rhymes: -ɪtə

Noun

sagitta (plural sagittas or (arrowworm) sagittae)

1. The keystone of an arch.
2. (geometry) The distance from a point in a curve to the chord; also, the versed sine of an arc; so called from its resemblance to an arrow resting on the bow and string.
3. (zootomy) The larger of the two otoliths, or earbones, found in most fishes.
4. Any arrowworm, of the genus Sagitta.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “sagitta”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Translations

distance from a point in a curve to the chord

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 矢 (zh) (shǐ)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

arrowworm

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 矢蟲／矢虫, 矢虫 (shǐchóng)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Related terms

• sagittal

References

• “sagitta”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

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Latin

duae sagittae (two arrows)

Etymology

Unknown etymology. Probably from a pre-Latin Mediterranean language.

A minority view connects it to sāgiō (“to perceive quickly or keenly”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /saˈɡit.ta/, [s̠äˈɡɪt̪ːä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /saˈd͡ʒit.ta/, [säˈd͡ʒit̪ːä]

• Audio (Classical):

  (file)

Noun

sagitta f (genitive sagittae); first declension

1. an arrow, shaft, bolt
2. (metonymically)
   1. (botany) the extreme thin part of a vine branch or shoot
   2. the arrowhead (plant of the genus Sagittaria)
   3. (Late Latin, medicine) a lancet (instrument for bloodletting)

Inflection

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	sagitta	sagittae
Genitive	sagittae	sagittārum
Dative	sagittae	sagittīs
Accusative	sagittam	sagittās
Ablative	sagittā	sagittīs
Vocative	sagitta	sagittae

Derived terms

• Sagitta
• sagittālis
• sagittārius
• sagittifer
• Sagittiger
• Sagittipotēns
• sagittō
• sagittula
• Scytalosagittipelliger

 

Related terms

• sagāx
• sāgiō
• sāgus

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: sãdzeatã
  • Romanian: săgeată
• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: saetta
    • →? Maltese: sajjetta
  • Sicilian: sajitta
• Padanian:
  • Friulian: saete
  • Istriot: sàita
  • Ladin: saëta, sita
  • Piedmontese: sajëta
  • Romansch: sajetta
  • Venetian: sita, saéta
• Northern Gallo-Romance:
  • Old French: saete, saiete
    • French: sagette (archaic, partly relatinized)
• Southern Gallo-Romance:
  • Catalan: sageta
  • Occitan: sageta
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Asturian: saeta
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: saeta
    • Galician: seta
    • Portuguese: seta
  • Spanish: saeta
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: saitta
• Ancient borrowings:
  • → Albanian: shigjetë
  • →? Greek: σαΐτα (saḯta)
  • → Old Irish: saiget
    • Middle Irish: saiget
      • Irish: saighead
      • Manx: side
      • Scottish Gaelic: saighead
  • → Proto-Brythonic: *saɣeθ (see there for further descendants)
• Learned borrowings:
  • → Catalan: sagita
  • → English: sagitta
  • → Esperanto: sago
  • → Italian: sagitta
  • → Translingual: Sagitta
  • → Spanish: sagita
  • → Volapük: sagit

See also

• arcus m

References

• “sagitta”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “sagitta”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• sagitta in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• sagitta in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “sagitta”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “sagitta”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin