Etymograph

English

sagitta

Sagitta comes from Latin sagitta ‘an arrow, shaft, bolt’, from sāgiō ‘to perceive quickly or keenly’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- ‘to seek out’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*seh₂g-1‘to seek out’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*séh₂gyeti2‘to seek out, to track’uncertain
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sāgiō2uncertain
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsāgiō3‘to perceive quickly or keenly’uncertain
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsagitta4‘an arrow, shaft, bolt’
  6. Englishtodaysagitta4

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *séh₂gyeti
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin sagio
  3. 3 Wiktionary, Latin sagitta
  4. 4 Wiktionary, English sagitta

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*seh₂g-Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *séh₂gyeti‘to seek out’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*séh₂gyetiWiktionary, Latin sagio‘to seek out, to track’uncertain
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sāgiōWiktionary, Latin sagiouncertain
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsāgiōWiktionary, Latin sagitta‘to perceive quickly or keenly’uncertain
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsagittaWiktionary, English sagitta‘an arrow, shaft, bolt’
  6. EnglishtodaysagittaWiktionary, English sagitta

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- ‘to seek out’

sake, sucker, hegemony, beseech, saya, hegemon, 19 more

through Proto-Indo-European *séh₂gyeti ‘to seek out, to track’

seek, soc, 5 more

through Latin sāgiō ‘to perceive quickly or keenly’

presage, sagacity, 4 more

Today it means

noun The keystone of an arch.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “sagitta”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Indo-European *séh₂gyeti, Latin sagio, Latin sagitta. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- / sagitta

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