The corpus record — Latin

saeta

hair of an animal; fishing-rod

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Carminum minorum corpusculum 4 · 4.74/10k
Firmus Saturninus, Proculus et Bonosus 1 · 4.32/10k
Hamartigenia 2 · 3.13/10k
Mosella 1 · 3.08/10k
de Bello Gothico 1 · 2.48/10k
De Constantia 1 · 1.89/10k
Georgicon 2 · 1.41/10k
Cathemerina 1 · 1.36/10k
de consulatu Stilichonis 1 · 1.32/10k
Casina 1 · 1.29/10k
Metamorphoses 7 · 0.9/10k
Carmina 2 · 0.89/10k

Densest 12 of 28 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. saeta — de Vaan

saeta 'hair of an animal; fishing-rod' [f. a] (P1.+) Derivatives: saetiger 'bristly' (Lucr.-t-). Pit. *saita-. saevus PIE *seh2i-to- or *sh2ei-to- 'cord'. IE cognates: Skt. setu- [m.] 'band, fetter, bridge', YAv. haetu- [m.] 'dam', OPr. saytan 'strap, belt', Lith. sietas> saitas 'tie', OCS setb 'snare, trap', Cz. sit9 'net', OIc. seidr [ni/J, OHG seid 'cord' [n.]. Most handbooks derive saeta from *sh2i- 'to bind', … — [de Vaan, s.v. saeta, p. 547]

2. saeta — Lewis & Short

saeta (sēta), ae, f.etym. dub..

I Prop., a thick, stiff hair on an animal; a bristle (class.; usu. in plur.; cf. villus, pilus).

A Plur.

1 Absol., Lucr. 5, 786; of a boar, Ov. M. 8, 428; cf. 2, B. infra; of a porcupine, Claud. Hystr. 6; of the fish aper, Ov. Hal. 59; of a goat, Verg. G. 3, 312; of a cow, id. A. 7, 790; of a horse, Amm. 29, 2, 4; Val. Fl. 6, 71: ita quasi saetis labra mihi compungit barba, Plaut. Cas. 5, 2, 48.—

2 With gen.: saetae leonis, Prop. 4, 9, 44.—

B Sing.: saeta equina, Cic. Tusc. 5, 21, 62: nigrae saetae grex (suum), Col. 7, 9, 2; cf. Verg. A. 7, 667.—

II Meton.

A Of stiff, bristly, human hair, Verg. A. 8, 266; id. G. 3, 312; Ov. M. 13, 850; Juv. 2, 11; Mart. 6, 56.—

B Of the spiny leaves of coniferous trees, Plin. 16, 10, 18, § 41.—

C Of any thing made of coarse hair or bristles, e. g. the bottom or leader of an angling-line, Ov. Hal. 34: piscem tremulā salientem ducere saetā, Mart. 1, 56, 9; so, id. 10, 30, 16.—

D A brush made from bristles: parieti siccato cera Punica cum oleo liquefacta candens saetis inducatur, Plin. 33, 7, 40, § 122; cf. Vitr. 7, 9, 3.

3. saeta — Walde–Hofmann

saeta, -ae f. ,Borste; Angelschnur“ (seit Plaut, rom., ebenso saetula „kleine Borste“ Arnob. und saetäcium n. , Haarsieb* CI. (italien. setaccio]; vgl. saetüció, -üre ,siebe* Orib. (Svennung Wtst. 133], saetiger „Borsten tragend" seit Lucr., m. ,Borstentrüger" seit Ov., saetösus „borstig“ sert Verg): zu ahd. seid „Strick, Schlinge“, seito, ags. säda ds., ahd. seita „Strick, Saite“; lit. pá-saitis „verbindender … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. saeta, p. 1368]

In the wild

saetis Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.428
saetae Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 8.51.p1
saetis Prudentius, Hamartigenia 1.873
saetis Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 6.71
saetaeque Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.303
saetis Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 33.7.p5

6 of 67 attestations shown.

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. saeta (scan pp. 547-548; entry #1524). Root candidates: *saita-, *sh2i-, *sh2ei-.
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. saeta (scan p. 612; entry #10024).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. saeta (scan p. 1368; entry #2366).

Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.