saga
Pronunciation
Forms
sāga f (genitive sāgae); first declension[1]
Etymology
It is from Latin sāgus (“prophetic”), its feminine used as a noun.[2][1] De Vaan notes that the adjective appears only after the Republic and that the compound praesāgiō (“to foresee”) is attested before the simple verb sāgiō (“to perceive keenly”), which may be a back-formation from it; he reconstructs Proto-Italic *sāg-ije/o- (“to seek, perceive”) and, with a query, Proto-Indo-European *seh₂ǵ-i- (“tracking”).[3] Cognates include Old Irish saigid (“to try to reach”), Hittite šāgāi- (“omen”), Ancient Greek ἡγέομαι (hēgéomai, “to direct, lead”) and English seek.[3] Cicero explains the name: these old women want to know a great deal, and the verb means to perceive keenly.[4]
Earliest recorded meaning
De Vaan dates it from Lucilius,[3] who has ut saga et bona conciliatrix, “like a wise woman and a good go-between”.[4][5]
Semantic evolution
It names a wise woman, fortune-teller or witch, in Cicero, Tibullus, Horace, Propertius and Ovid, and in Columella.[4][5] Because such women often acted as go-betweens, it could also mean a procuress: Turpilius speaks of a saga conducta pretio, a wise woman hired for a fee, and Nonius defines sagae as women who track out men for lust.[4] In Ecclesiastical Latin it is a witch.[6]
Timeline
- c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius pairs saga with conciliatrix, a go-between.[4][3][7]
- 2nd century BC – Turpilius uses it of a hired wise woman.[4][7]
- 81–43 BC – Cicero explains the name from sagire, to perceive keenly.[4][7]
- 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a witch.[4][5][7]
Meanings
Noun
Word family
- Sagana
Related words
Usage notes
Lewis and Short also enter săga, with a short vowel, as a form of sagum, the military cloak.[4] In New Latin saga also means a saga, borrowed from Old Norse saga.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
- ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
- ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de