sagittary

See also: Sagittary

English

Etymology

From Latin sagittarius, from sagitta (“arrow”). Doublet of Sagittarius.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsæd͡ʒɪtəɹi/

Noun

sagittary (plural sagittaries)

1. (archaic) A centaur, half-human and half-horse.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v], lines 15-16:

     the dreadful Sagittary / Appals our numbers

   • 1850, Mother Shipton (Ursula), The Life, Prophecies and Death of the Famous Mother Shipton. [A Reprint of R. Head's Life, 1687. Edited by C. Hindley.], page 14:

     [...] lion, to tread down all that shall oppose them; and though many sagittaries shall appear in defence of the Lilies, yet shall they not prevail ; because the dull animal of the North shall be put to confusion; and though it be against  […] the chief strength of France, consisting of horsemen who appeared like sagittaries, that is to say half men and half horses: […]

   • 1942, John Heath-Stubbs, Wounded Thammuz:

     ... Hard by the condor's eyrie and caverns of the cougar, The centaurs dwell, those savage sagittaries, With their shoulders unharnessed nor their trampling hooves shod But their broad brows are brother to the human.

2. (heraldry, often capitalized) A mythical compound creature, resembling a centaur (half-human, half-horse) or a half-human, half-lion, often armed with a bow and arrows.
   • 1825, Thomas Dudley Fosbroke, Encyclopaedia of antiquities, and elements of archaeology, classical and mediaeval, page 650:

     Gules, three Sagittaries - or, three torteaux. Stephen's cognizance was a Sagittary, because he entered England when the Sun was in that sign, and was greatly indebted for his success to mounted archers.

   • 1845, Edward Smedley, Hugh James Rose, Henry John Rose, Encyclopaedia Metropolitana: Plates and Maps to the Historical and Miscellaneous Divisions, page 608:

     And all beasts azure are armed gules, and vice versa. The Sagittary is well known as the representation of the  […]

   • 1863, Charles Boutell, Heraldry, Historical and Popular, page 263:

     to have borne on a red shield, three golden centaurs armed with bows and arrows, or "Sagittaries;" it has been conjectured, however, that this idea may have arisen from the circumstance of the "Sagittary" having been Stephen's […]

   • 1867, Art-Union: A Monthly Journal of the Fine Arts, page 151:

     Gules, three sagittaries, in pale, or. These sagittaries are generally blazoned as compound creatures, half man and half lion, as in Fig. 19.

   • 1905, Royal Society of Arts (Great Britain), Journal of the Society of Arts, page 604:

     [The coat-]of-arms of Normandy is "Gules, two lions guardant or," and it is supposed that this coat was used by our Norman kings with the exception of Stephen - who is credited with three centaurs with bows and arrows - Sagittaries.

3. (archaic) An archer; by extension, a coin used in ancient Persia and Greece featuring an archer.
   • 1677, Sir Thomas Herbert, Some Years Travels Into Divers Parts of Africa, and Asia the Great, page 301:

     Born till Crassus perished by them, at which time a Sagittary was blazoned in their Royal Standard: [...] Darius being stamped on the one side and a Sagittary (his coat-armour) on the other; memorized by Plutarch in the life of Agesilaus, who complained that his design of conquering Asia was prevented by thirty thousand Sagittaries; meaning a Bribe of so many […]