# semita
## English
### Etymology

From Latin semita (“a path”).

### Noun

semita (plural semitae)
* A fasciole of a spatangoid sea urchin.
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing. (See the entry for “semita”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

### Anagrams

* Amesti, Maties, aimest, maiest, maties, misate, miseat, samite, tamise

## Catalan
### Etymology

From Sem +‎ -ita.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic) [səˈmi.tə]
* IPA: (Valencia) [seˈmi.ta]

### Adjective

semita m or f (masculine and feminine plural semites)
* Semitic

### Noun

semita m or f by sense (plural semites)
* Semite

#### Derived terms

* antisemita
* semític
* semitisme
* semitista

### Further reading

* “semita” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

## Esperanto
### Adjective

semita (accusative singular semitan, plural semitaj, accusative plural semitajn)
* singular past passive participle of semi

## Italian
### Etymology 1

From Sem (“Shem”) +‎ -ita.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /seˈmi.ta/
* Rhymes: -ita
* Hyphenation: se‧mì‧ta

#### Adjective

semita (masculine plural semiti, feminine plural semite)
* Semitic
    Synonym: semitico

#### Noun

semita m or f by sense (masculine plural semiti, feminine plural semite)
* Semite

##### Derived terms

* antisemita

#### Further reading

* semìta in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

### Etymology 2

Learned borrowing from Latin sēmita.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈsɛ.mi.ta/
* Rhymes: -ɛmita
* Hyphenation: sè‧mi‧ta

#### Noun

semita f (plural semite)
* (obsolete) path
    Synonym: sentiero

##### Related terms

* sentiero

#### Further reading

* sèmita in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

### Anagrams

* astemi, estima, mestai

## Latin
### Etymology

From Proto-Italic *sēmitā, from Proto-Indo-European *swé(d) (“by oneself; away, without”) +‎ *mey- (“change, exchange”) +‎ *-téh₂. For *swé(d), compare sē-, sē, sed. For *mey-, compare meō. The LIV disagrees with De Vaan's reconstruction of *h₂mey- and prefers *mey-, though Beekes agrees with De Vaan. Compare trāmes.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈseː.mi.ta/, [ˈs̠eːmɪt̪ä]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈse.mi.ta/, [ˈsɛːmit̪ä]

### Noun

sēmita f (genitive sēmitae); first declension
* narrow way, footpath, path, pathway
    Synonyms: trāmes, callis
** 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.418:Corripuēre viam intereā, quā sēmita mōnstrat.Meanwhile [Aeneas and Achates] hasten [along their] journey, [going] where the pathway leads [them]. (Note: “corripuere” is a syncopated form of corripuerunt.)
** 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Proverbs.4.14:nē dēlectēris sēmitīs impiōrum nec tibi placeat malōrum viaBe not delighted in the paths of the wicked, neither let the way of evil men please thee. (Douay-Rheims trans., Challoner rev.; 1752 CE)

#### Declension

First-declension noun.

#### Derived terms

* sēmita convīcīnālis
* sēmitālis
* sēmitārius
* sēmitātim
* sēmitātrīcēs deae
* sēmitātus
* sēmitō

#### Descendants

* Insular Romance:
** Old Sardinian: semida
* North Italian:
** Friulian: sémide
** Lombard: senta, senda
** Romansch: senda, semda
* Gallo-Romance:
** Catalan: senda
** Gascon: senda
** French: sente
* Ibero-Romance:
** Mozarabic: [Term?]
*** → Spanish: xenta, senta (Totana), chenta (Archena), chinta (Blanca) (all dialectical forms found in Murcia)
** Old Galician-Portuguese: senda
*** Galician: senda
*** Portuguese: senda
** Spanish: senda
*** → Basque: senda, sinda
* Borrowings:
** → Aramaic: סֵימִטָא (sēmiṭā)
*** → Arabic: سَمْت (samt) (see there for further descendants)
*** → Hebrew: סמטה (simta)
** → English: semita
** → Italian: semita (learned)
** → Portuguese: sémita

### References

* Joan Coromines, José A[ntonio] Pascual (1983) “senda”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critic Castilian and Hispanic Etymological Dictionary] (in Spanish), volume V (Ri–X), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 204
* Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “sēmĭta”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 11: S–Si, page 441
* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “meō, meāre”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 373-374
* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “sē-, se-, sō-, so-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 549-550
* ↑ Rix, Helmut, editor (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben [Lexicon of Indo-European Verbs] (in German), 2nd edition, Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, →ISBN, page 426
* ↑ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “ἀμείβω”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 85-86

### Further reading

* “sēmĭta”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “semita”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* sēmĭta in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 1,420/3.
* “sēmita” on page 1,732/2 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)
* “sēmita” on page 1,909/3 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)

## Portuguese
### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /seˈmi.tɐ/
* (Brazil) IPA: /seˈmi.tɐ/
** (Southern Brazil) IPA: /seˈmi.ta/
* (Portugal) IPA: /sɨˈmi.tɐ/
* Hyphenation: se‧mi‧ta

### Noun

semita m or f by sense (plural semitas)
* Semite (member of the Semites, an ethnic group of the Middle East)

### Adjective

semita m or f (plural semitas)
* Semitic (relating to the Semites)
* (linguistics) Semitic (relating to the Semitic language family)

#### Synonyms

* semítico

## Spanish
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /seˈmita/ [seˈmi.t̪a]
* Rhymes: -ita
* Syllabification: se‧mi‧ta
* Homophone: (Latin America) cemita

### Etymology 1

From Sem +‎ -ita.

#### Adjective

semita m or f (masculine and feminine plural semitas)
* Semitic

#### Noun

semita m or f by sense (plural semitas)
* Semite

##### Derived terms

* antisemita
* semitismo
* semitista

##### Related terms

* semitanet
* semítico

### Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

#### Noun

semita f (plural semitas)
* (Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador) Alternative form of cemita

### Further reading

* “semita”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10