orbita

Forms

orbita f (genitive orbitae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin orbis (“circle, wheel”), according to the OLD and the TLL,^[2][3] though the TLL notes doubts about both its meaning and its form, since a long ⟨ī⟩ would be expected.^[3] De Vaan traces it, together with Umbrian urfeta, an object that an Umbrian priest holds in his hands, to Proto-Italic *orfi/etā- (“wheel-like, disc”), with the vowel restored in the second syllable in Umbrian.^[4][2] After Weiss he explains this as the feminine of a stem meaning “wheel-like one”, derived from the noun from which ⟨orbis⟩ also comes.^[4] The further origin of that noun is much disputed;^[4][1] Weiss and Wiktionary derive it from Proto-Indo-European *h₃erbʰ- (“to turn”).^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro,^[4] who uses it figuratively of a practice of married women,^[2][5] while Cicero uses it of the rut made by a wheel.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is the track or rut a wheel leaves in the ground:^[2][5] besides Cicero, Virgil and Livy use it so.^[5] Anything like such a track could be called by it: Manilius has a gleaming track in the blue sky, and Pliny the Elder the mark left by a band.^[2][5] In poetry and later prose it is the course of a heavenly body: Propertius counts the circuits of the full moon, and the Aetna and Seneca speak of the moon's orbit.^[2][5] Figuratively it is a beaten path, a routine or example to follow: Quintilian uses it of a well-trodden way, and Juvenal of the track of an old fault.^[5][2]

In British medieval Latin it still meant a wheel track or path, also a swath cut in mowing, a model to follow, a circuit and the course of the world or of a year.^[6] Medieval Latin also used it of the socket of the eye, the sense in which English first took over orbit in the late 14th century; the astronomical sense was revived in Gerard of Cremona's translation of Avicenna and reached English in the 1690s.^[7]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a routine of married women.^[2][5][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a wheel rut.^[2][5][8]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius uses it of the moon's course.^[2][8]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca speaks of the moon's orbit.^[5][8]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it of the track of an old fault.^[5][8]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as orbit, at first for the eye socket.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The track made by a wheel, a rut.^[2][5]
2. A mark or furrow like a wheel track.^[2][5]
3. The path of a heavenly body, orbit.^[2][5]
4. (figurative) A beaten path; regular practice, routine; example.^[2][5]
5. (Medieval Latin) A swath cut in mowing; a circuit.^[6]
6. (Medieval Latin) The socket of the eye.^[7]

Word family

• exorbitō
• orbitōsus

Related words

• orbis
• orbiculus
• English orbit

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de