saeta

Forms

saeta f (plural saetas)^[1] Old Spanish texts also spell it sayeta.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish saeta, inherited from Latin sagitta (“arrow”).^{[3][4][5][6][1]} The same Latin word is Portuguese seta, older saeta and seeta, Asturian saeta, Catalan sageta, French sagette and Italian saetta.^[7][8][9][1]

De Vaan finds no etymology for the Latin word.^[10] Wiktionary takes it as probably from a pre-Latin Mediterranean language, with a minority view linking it to sāgiō (“to perceive keenly”).^[1] Gómez de Silva also thinks it probably non-Indo-European, perhaps Etruscan.^[11]

Wiktionary lists the Andalusian Holy Week song separately and suggests it may be the same word or perhaps of Arabic origin.^[1] The Academy's dictionaries treat it as a sense of this word, one that grew out of the short moral verses that missionaries recited.^[12][13][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DHLE dates the first record to about 1200, in Almerich's La fazienda de Ultra Mar, in the sense of the weapon: tiraronle arcos e saetas “they shot bows and arrows at him”.^[6][14] Corominas's first record is Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos, where the arrow is the devil's: que de la su saeta non me vea colpado “that I may not be struck by his arrow”.^[3][15]

Semantic evolution

The word was very common in the Middle Ages, in poems, law codes and the histories and astronomical works of Alfonso X.^[3][6] It was often qualified by what the head carried, poison of herbs or burning material, and it was Cupid's arrow that caused love.^[6] Alfonso X's Lapidario also uses it for a northern constellation.^[16] The French loan flecha soon competed with it, but never drove it out of use.^[3]

Covarrubias tells that the Santa Hermandad shot criminals with arrows until the Emperor Charles ordered them to be garrotted first, and records the proverb a las que sabes mueras, y sabía hacer saetas.^[17] The 1817 Academy dictionary added the hand of a clock, the compass needle, the stub of a vine shoot left after pruning, and the short moral verses sung by missionaries.^[12] By 1917 these verses were sung in churches or streets during religious feasts, and the 2001 Academy dictionary has a prayer or verse sung in processions.^[18][19] The DLE now defines it as a flamenco form, and Moliner and Vox describe a song sung solo, without instruments, during Holy Week in Andalusia.^[5][20][21] In Asturian a saeta is also a cutting remark.^[22]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar has the first record, for the weapon.^[6][14]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes, the earliest text without a later copy.^[14]
• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos, the DCECH's first record.^[3][14]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for the constellation.^[16]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin sagitta and spiculum.^[23]
• 1512 – the first American record, an inventory from Puerto Rico.^[24]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the Santa Hermandad's punishment by arrows.^[17]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the hand of a clock and the missionaries' verses.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. An arrow (flecha): La saeta se clavó en el centro de la diana.^[5][20][1]
2. The hand of a clock or watch (manecilla).^[5][1]
3. The needle of a compass that turns towards the magnetic pole.^[5]
4. (agriculture) The tip of a vine shoot (sarmiento) left on the stock after pruning.^[5]
5. (music) A flamenco song, a short prayer or verse sung to the images carried in processions, especially in Holy Week in Andalusia.^[5][20][21]
6. (zoology) An arrow worm, a small transparent marine animal of the plankton.^[21]

Word family

• saetazo
• saetear
• saetero
• asaetear
• saetada
• saetín

Related words

• saetar
• saetera
• sagitario
• sagital
• Latin sagitta
• Catalan sageta

Usage notes

Echar saetas means to show by words or gestures that one is piqued or resentful.^[5][25] Saetía, a kind of lateen-rigged ship, is a separate word, probably from Arabic, influenced by saeta.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. saeta
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 124
4. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. saeta
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. saeta
6. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. saeta
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3075
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. seta
9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 7, 588
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 625
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 778
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 649
14. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. saeta
15. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 684
16. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. saeta
17. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1276
18. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1478
19. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. saeta
20. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. saeta
21. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. saeta
22. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. saeta
23. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 412
24. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. saeta
25. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 695