Etymologically
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saeta

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈsae̯.ta][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈsɛː.ta][1]

Forms

saeta f (genitive saetae); first declension[1] Also spelt sēta.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *saitā-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂i-to- (“cord”), from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂i- (“to bind”).[4][1] Schrijver doubts the link between “bind” and “hair”, but de Vaan notes that the root has many words for “strap” and “cord”.[4] Cognate with Sanskrit सेतु (sétu, “band, fetter”), Lithuanian siẽtas (“tie”), Old Church Slavonic сѣть (sětĭ, “snare”) and Old High German seid (“cord”).[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it of a beard that pricks the lips like bristles.[2][4] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was a coarse or stiff hair of an animal, a bristle, as of a boar in Ovid, or the mane of a horse, and a fishing line made of horsehair.[2][6] In Late Latin it came to mean silk, the sense of most of its descendants.[1]

In medieval Britain bristles were used as needles, in medicine and as wicks.[7] It survives as Italian seta, French soie and Spanish seda, and English seta “bristle” is borrowed in zoology.[1][8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[2][5]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it.[3][5]
  • 1793 – English seta is recorded in zoology.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A bristle, stiff hair (of an animal).[2][3]
  2. A fishing line of horsehair.[2]
  3. (Late Latin) Silk.[1]

Word family

  • bisaetus
  • saetiger
  • saetōsus
  • saetula
  • equisaetum
  • saetacium
  • setula

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com