syrtis

English edit

Alternative forms edit

syrt

Etymology edit

From Latin syrtis, from Syrtis (“Sirte, Gulf of Syrtis”), from Ancient Greek Σύρτις (Súrtis), an area of Libya proverbially treacherous for sailing owing to the effect of wind and waves on its quicksand. Doublet of Sirte.

Pronunciation edit

IPA^(key): /sərtəz/

Noun edit

syrtis (plural syrtes)

(archaic) Synonym of quicksand.
(archaic) Synonym of bog.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
  ... Quenched in a boggy syrtis, neither sea
  Nor good dry land ...

References edit

“syrtis”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
“syrtis”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Latin edit

Etymology edit

Generalized form of Syrtis (“Sirte, Gulf of Syrtis”), from Ancient Greek Σύρτις (Súrtis), an area of Libya proverbially treacherous for sailing owing to the effect of wind and waves on its quicksand.

Noun edit

syrtis f (genitive syrtis); third declension

sandbank, sand bar, quicksand
- 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.110–112:
  [...] trīs Eurus ab altō
  in brevia et syrtīs urget, miserābile vīsū,
  inlīditque vadīs atque aggere cingit harēnae.
  [...] three [ships] the Southeaster drives from the deep sea onto shallow sandbanks – [a sight] miserable to behold – and dashes [them] on the shoals and surrounds [them] with mounds of sand.
  (Latin texts vary: “syrtis” or “syrtes.” Specifically, the poetic geography could intend either “Syrtis Major,” now known as the Gulf of Sidra, or “Syrtis Minor,” now the Gulf of Gabès. The Greek east or southeast wind was Eurus.)

Declension edit

Third-declension noun (i-stem, accusative singular in -im or -in, ablative singular in -ī).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	syrtis	syrtēs
Genitive	syrtis	syrtium
Dative	syrtī	syrtibus
Accusative	syrtim syrtin	syrtēs syrtīs
Ablative	syrtī	syrtibus
Vocative	syrtis	syrtēs

Descendants edit

→ English: syrtis, syrt