sagitta

See also: Sagitta

English

Etymology

From Latin sagitta (“arrow”).

Noun

sagitta (plural sagittas)

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. (anatomy) The larger of the two otoliths, or ear bones, found in most fishes.

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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.)

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Latin

duae sagittae (two arrows)

Etymology

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

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. arrow, bolt
2. (medicine) lancet
3. (botany) arrowhead, a plant of the genus Sagittaria

Declension

First-declension noun.

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

Related terms

• sāgiō
• Sagitta
• sagittārius
• sagittātus

• sagittifer
• sagittō
• sagittula

Descendants

• → Albanian: shigjetë
• Aromanian: sãdzeatã
• Asturian: saeta
• → Breton: saezh
• Catalan: sageta
• → Cornish: seth
• → English: sagitta
• → Esperanto: sago
• Friulian: saete
• Galician: seta
• Istriot: sàita
• Italian: saetta, sagitta
• Ladin: saëta, sita
• → Maltese: sajjetta
• → Manx: side
• Occitan: sageta

• Old French: saete, saiete
  • French: sagette
• → Old Irish: saiget
  • Irish: saighead
• Old Galician-Portuguese: saeta
  • Portuguese: seta
• Romanian: săgeată
• Romansch: sajetta
• → Scottish Gaelic: saighead
• Spanish: saeta
• → Translingual: Sagitta
• → Volapük: sagit
• Venetian: sita, saéta
• → Welsh: saeth

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