Sagittarius

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English Sagittarius,^[2] borrowed from Latin sagittārius (“archer”), properly an adjective meaning "pertaining to arrows",^[3][4][5][2] from sagitta (“arrow”),^[6][4][2] with the suffix -ārius.^[6][2] Etymonline considers the noun for "arrow" to come probably from a pre-Latin Mediterranean language.^[4] Compare French sagittaire,^[3] and the older English sagittary.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The constellation and the ninth sign of the zodiac: in Old English according to the Shorter Oxford,^[7] and in late Old English according to Etymonline.^[4] The OED, in an entry not fully revised, quotes Gower's Confessio Amantis of 1390,^[3] and Hoad and Merriam-Webster date it to the 14th century.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The figure is a centaur drawing a bow,^[4][2] and scholars, as Etymonline reports, suspect it was originally a Babylonian god.^[4] Before 1592, in Greene's Orlando Furioso, the name is used of the mythic centaur himself.^[3] From 1619 it is a term of heraldry, for a centaur or perhaps a horseman with a drawn bow.^[3][7] The use for a person born under the sign is dated to 1901 by Etymonline, from a syndicated newspaper article, and to 1940 by the OED.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1390 – the zodiacal constellation and sign, in Gower.^[3]
• before 1592 – the mythic centaur.^[3]
• 1619 – a heraldic bearing, a centaur with a drawn bow.^[3][7]
• 1901 – a person born under the sign.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. In astrology, the ninth sign of the zodiac, the Archer, associated with the period from about 22 November to 21 December.^[7][8]
2. A person born under this sign.^[8][3]
3. A large southern constellation between Scorpius and Capricornus, pictured as a centaur shooting an arrow, which contains the centre of the Milky Way.^[8][2][3]
4. In heraldry, a bearing showing a centaur with a drawn bow.^[3][7]

Word family

• Sagittarian

Related words

• sagittary
• Scorpio
• Capricorn

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins