Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The keystone of an arch.
  • noun geometry The distance from a point in a curve to the chord; also, the versed sine of an arc; so called from its resemblance to an arrow resting on the bow and string.
  • noun anatomy The larger of the two otoliths, or ear bones, found in most fishes.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin sagitta ("arrow").

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Examples

  • Patroclus; he was even tempted to believe with Sextus that the name iatros, medicus, was derived from ios, which in the older times signified "sagitta," and that the earliest function of our professional ancestors was the extraction of arrows and darts.

    Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine 1896

  • The sand dune deserts of Tsugar els and Altan els have Tolai hare Lepus tolai, daurian partridge Perdix dauuricae, houbara and great bustards Chlamydotis undulata and Otis tarda (VU); and the specialized species five-toed dwarf jerboa Cardiocranius paradoxus (VU) and northern three-toed jerboa Dipos sagitta.

    Uvs Nuur Basin, Russian Federation, Republic of Tuva and Mongolia 2008

  • One species – the Rough-legged jerboa Dipus sagitta – exhibits particularly interesting predator-avoidance behaviour: it not only leaps from predators, but, as it leaps, grabs at over-hanging foliage with its teeth and forelimbs, and then clambers into the vegetation to hide (Hanney 1975).

    Archive 2006-03-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • Rodents characteristic of the Basin include Meriones unguiculatus, Dipus sagitta, Citellus erithrogenus, and Phodopus roborovskii.

    Great Lakes Basin desert steppe 2007

  • Itaque si quis tentorio propinquabat vltra terminos, qui positi erant, si capiebatur, verberabatur, si fugiebat, sagitta siue ferro sagittabatur.

    The long and wonderful voyage of Frier Iohn de Plano Carpini 2004

  • Itaque si quis tentorio propinquabat vltra terminos, qui positi erant, si capiebatur, verberabatur, si fugiebat, sagitta siue ferro sagittabatur.

    The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation 2003

  • To this end he wrote a lengthy letter entitled "Ignea sagitta" (unedited) in which he condemned in greatly exaggerated terms what he called the dangerous occupations of preaching and hearing confessions.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 3: Brownson-Clairvaux 1840-1916 1913

  • _Non timebis a timore noctuno: a sagitta volante in àie: a negotio perambulante in tenebris: ab incursu et demonio meridiano.

    Old Calabria Norman Douglas 1910

  • If this is true, I should say that Setter might represent the Old Fr, saieteur, arrow-maker, from saiete, an arrow, Lat. sagitta.

    The Romance of Names Ernest Weekley 1909

  • Synonyms: _T. sagitta_ Ehr. '40, Stein' 59; _T. tenuicollis_

    Marine Protozoa from Woods Hole Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission 21:415-468, 1901 1906

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  • "Sagitta, the Arrow, or Dart, in astronomy, a constellation of the northern hemisphere, near the eagle, consisting, according to Flamsteed's Catalogue, of no less than twenty-three stars."

    Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 422

    October 12, 2008

  • The largest of the three pairs of otoliths found in many fish. The sagittae (singular sagitta) are largest, found just behind the eyes and approximately level with them vertically. The other two are lapilli (singular lapillus), and asterisci (singular asteriscus), which are in the semicircular canals.

    March 12, 2009

  • ""It's simple, I'll show you," said the thief, taking off her black glove and drawing a quadrant in the snow with her index finger. But as she stretched to describe its base and sagitta, the y beneath her gave a fearful crack and in terror she grabbed Baumgarten by his dressing gown. He suggested she leave off the explanations: for the listener's understanding of the story of the wrecked boat a knowledge of infinitesimal calculus was probably not altogether necessary."

    - The Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz, translated by Andrew Oakland, p 112 of the Dalkey Archive paperback

    June 12, 2011