semita

Forms

sēmita f (genitive sēmitae); first declension^[1] Inscriptions have a neuter plural sēmita and a dative plural sēmitibus.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin sē- (“aside”) + meō (“to go, pass”), a “going aside”: de Vaan explains it as ⟨*sē-mit-⟩, a compounded root noun with a t-suffix, like trāmes (“footpath”).^[2][3][4] The verb meō goes back to Proto-Italic *mejo- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂mei-o- (“to exchange, change”), through “change places, pass”.^[3] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἀμείβω (ameíbō, “to exchange”) and Lithuanian maĩnas (“exchange”).^[3]

Varro explained it as ⟨sēmiter⟩, “half a road”, for a narrow way.^[5] Döderlein's derivation from secāre “to cut” is not followed by de Vaan.^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[3][4] who has “I'd like someone to show me a road or a path from here”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a side path or track, and in a town an alley or lane, the opposite of via: Cicero speaks of the very narrow lanes of Capua, and Caesar of chariots sent out by every known road and path.^[2][5] Plautus uses it of the sidewalk, as in the Curculio, where a slave threatens to knock anyone off it head first.^[2] Varro has it of the tracks dormice make in their jars, and Manilius of the trail left by a moving star.^[2] Döderlein describes it as a footpath that often runs beside the high road.^[6]

Church Latin glosses it “path, way, lane, narrow way, footpath”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a path and of a sidewalk.^[2][3][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of the tracks of dormice.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of narrow lanes.^[5][4]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of known roads and paths.^[5][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A narrow way, footpath, side path; in a town, an alley, lane.^[2][5][1]
2. A course, track.^[2]
3. A sidewalk, pavement.^[2]
4. The trail of a moving object.^[2]

Word family

• sēmitālis
• sēmitārius
• sēmitō

Related words

• meō
• trāmes
• via

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson