săgeta

Forms

săgeta (third-person singular present săgetează, past participle săgetat) 1st conjugation^[1] The old texts conjugate the present without -ez: „Fiii lui Efrem se întindză și se săgeate cu arce” “the sons of Ephraim bend and shoot with bows” (Psalm 77).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sagittō (“to shoot arrows”), according to DEX, the DLR, MDA2, Tiktin and Wiktionary.^{[4][2][5][3][1]} Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of săgeată and adds that it could come straight from Latin, as Pușcariu and the REW hold; he compares Aromanian sădzitedz and Italian saettare.^[6] The Latin verb is formed on sagitta (“arrow”) and is post-Augustan; the Vulgate uses it in Psalms 10 and 63.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, in Psalms 10, 36 and 63, where the wicked shoot at the upright.^[8] Tiktin's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană, Psalm 63, and MDA2's is the same psalter (c. 1573–1578).^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is “to shoot arrows”, and transitively “to hit, wound or kill with an arrow”; the chroniclers praise Bogdan Vodă because he could shoot with the bow as no one better.^[2][3] From the wound of an arrow came the figurative senses: to cause a sharp pain, to strike suddenly with an emotion, to pierce with a look, to wound with ironic remarks.^[4][9] The swift straight flight of the arrow gave “to dart” and “to flash, strike like lightning”.^[4][10] In folk belief evil spirits, illnesses and death were said to strike people this way, and in Maramureș the verb also means “to cast the evil eye”.^[5][11]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, Psalms 10, 36 and 63.^[8]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[5][3]
• 1649 – the participle săgetat in Mardarie's lexicon.^[12]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible, Psalms 10 and 63.^[13][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hit, wound or kill with an arrow; intransitively, to shoot arrows with a bow.^[4][1]
2. (figurative) To cause a sharp, piercing pain; to strike with a sudden strong emotion.^[4][9]
3. (figurative) To pierce with a look; to make ironic or spiteful remarks at someone.^[4][9]
4. (figurative) To dart, to rush in a straight line; to flash like lightning.^[4][1]
5. (figurative) Of a light: to send out rays.^[4]

Word family

• săgetare
• săgetător
• săgetătură

Related words

• săgeată
• săgetar
• arc
• Aromanian sădzitedz

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. săgeta
3. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. săgeta
4. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 978
5. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 767
6. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. săgeată
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 10:2
9. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. săgeta
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 20
11. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. săgetá
12. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. săgetat
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ps 63:4