saetta

• IPA^(key): /saˈet.ta/
• Rhymes: -etta
• Hyphenation: sa‧ét‧ta

From Latin sagitta (“arrow”).

saetta f (plural saette)

1. (literary) arrow

   Synonyms: (literary) dardo, (common) freccia, (literary) quadrello, (literary, obsolete) sagitta, (literary) strale

   • 1336–1374, Francesco Petrarca, “CCIX — I dolci colli ov’io lasciai me stesso”, in Il Canzoniere, lines 9–11; republished as Daniele Ponchiroli, editor, Turin: publ. Giulio Einaudi, 1964:

     Et qual cervo ferito di saetta,
     col ferro avelenato dentr’al fianco,
     fugge […]

     And like a deer wounded by an arrow, with the poisoned tip in its side, runs […]

   • mid 1300s–mid 1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto VIII”, in Inferno [Hell]‎, lines 13–16; republished as Giorgio Petrocchi, editor, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata [The Commedia according to the ancient vulgate]‎, 2^nd revised edition, Florence: publ. Le Lettere, 1994:

     Corda non pinse mai da sé saetta
     che sì corresse via per l’aere snella,
     com’io vidi una nave piccioletta
     venir per l’acqua verso noi in quella

     A cord never shot an arrow from itself that ran through the air so swift as I there saw a small ship come towards us through the water

   • 1516–1532, Ludovico Ariosto, “Canto 30”, in Orlando furioso, stanza 15; republished as Santorre Debenedetti, editor, Bari: Laterza, 1928:

     Ma la Fortuna, che dei pazzi ha cura,
     del mar lo trasse nel lito di Setta,
     in una spiaggia, lungi da le mura
     quanto sarian duo tratti di saetta.

     But Fortune—who looks after madmen—took him from the sea to the shore of the Setta, on a beach, distant from the walls the equivalent of two arrow shots.

   1. (figurative, poetic) sunbeam, ray or shaft (of sunlight)

      Synonyms: (literary) dardo, raggio (di sole)

      • early-mid 1310s–mid 1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto II”, in Purgatorio [Purgatory]‎, lines 55–57; republished as Giorgio Petrocchi, editor, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata [The Commedia according to the ancient vulgate]‎, 2^nd revised edition, Florence: publ. Le Lettere, 1994:

        Da tutte parti saettava il giorno
        lo sol, ch’avea con le saette conte
        di mezzo ’l ciel cacciato Capricorno

        On all sides was darting forth the day the sun, who had, with its resplendent shafts chased the Capricorn away from the middle of the sky

2. (transferred sense):
   1. (obsolete) hand (of a clock)

      Synonym: (common) lancetta

   2. (uncommon) lancet (surgical tool)

      Synonym: (common) lancetta

   3. (sculpture, engraving) a pointed iron tool
   4. (manufacturing) a pyramid-shaped drill bit
   5. (geometry) sagitta (distance from a point in a curve to the chord)

      Synonym: freccia

   6. (architecture) a strut of a truss

      Synonym: saettone

3. (transferred sense) thunderbolt, lightning

   Synonyms: (literary) folgore, (common) fulmine

   1. (figurative) a very quick person or thing; a very restless person

      Synonyms: freccia, fulmine, lampo, razzo, (familiar) scheggia, treno

   2. (archaic, figurative, as una saetta) nothing, anything
      • 1830, Antonio Guadagnoli, Epistola, published 1861, page 94, lines 1–3, collected in Poesie inedite:

        In questa Pisa santa e benedetta,
        Dottori, galeotti e cavalieri,
        Fuor di lor non si trova una saetta!

        In this Pisa—blessed and holy—[there are] doctors, convicts, and knights. Apart from them, there's nothing to be found!

      Synonyms: niente di niente, un bel niente

4. (botany) arrowhead (the plant Sagittaria sagittifolia)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

saetta

1. inflection of saettare:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

• a testa, astate, attesa, esatta, tesata