Sagitta

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A form of missile designed for archery that takes the shape of an arrow; a medical term indicating a part or feature mimicking an arrowhead in appearance; a reference in astronomy to a constellation that visually resembles a dart or arrow shape
2. Something that has the shape or form of an arrowhead or dart ; a pointed projectile launched from a bow ; a named star group that is shaped like an arrow in the sky
3. An object resembling an arrow in outline or structure ; a shaft used as a weapon or sport tool in archery ; a specific star pattern recognized as an arrow constellation

Etymology: Latin "sagitta" meant "arrow" or "shaft," and it is the root behind the English word "sagittal," used in anatomy for planes that divide the body vertically, and "Sagittarius," the archer among the zodiac signs. In English, "sagitta" is the direct Latin form, borrowed as a technical term rather than arriving through everyday speech, which is why it sounds more like a scholar's word than a common one. The sense of "arrow" is the original one, and the word's meanings branch from there. The name is applied to a shaft used in archery, and also to any object that resembles an arrow in outline or structure. Astronomers use it for a small, arrow-shaped star pattern in the northern sky, a configuration that was recognised as an arrow long before anyone thought of it as a constellation in the modern, formally bounded sense.