satellite

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See also: Satellite

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle French satellite, from Latin satelles (“attendant”). Ultimately perhaps of Etruscan origin.

Pronunciation

Noun

satellite (plural satellites)

  1. A moon or other smaller body orbiting a larger one.
    The Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth.
    A spent upper stage is a derelict satellite.
  2. A man-made apparatus designed to be placed in orbit around a celestial body, generally to relay information, data etc. to Earth.
    Many telecommunication satellites orbit at 36000km above the equator.
  3. A country, state, office, building etc. which is under the jurisdiction, influence, or domination of another body.
  4. (now rare) An attendant on an important person; a member of someone's retinue, often in a somewhat derogatory sense; a henchman.
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 3, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes , book II, London: Val Simmes for Edward Blount , →OCLC:
      We read in the Bible, that Nicanor the persecutor of Gods Law […] sent his Satellites to apprehend the good old man Rasias […].
    • 1826, Woodstock, Walter Scott, page 348:
      […] he would nevertheless have a better bargain of this tall satellite if they settled the debate betwixt them in the forest […]. Betwixt anxiety, therefore, vexation, and anger, Charles faced suddenly round on his pursuer […].
    • 1948, Willard E. Hawkins, The Technique of Fiction: A Basic Course in Story Writing, page 169:
      The unnamed chronicler in his Dupin stories was the first Dr. Watson type of satellite—a narrator who accompanies the detective on his exploits, exclaims over his brilliance […].
  5. (colloquial, uncountable) Satellite TV; reception of television broadcasts via services that use man-made satellite technology.
    Do you have satellite at your house?
  6. (grammar) A grammatical construct that takes various forms and may encode a path of movement, a change of state, or the grammatical aspect. Examples: "a bird flew past"; "she turned on the light".
  7. (genetics) A very large array of tandemly repeating, non-coding DNA.
  8. A community or town dependent on a larger town or city nearby.
    • 1949 March and April, F. G. Roe, “I Saw Three Englands–2”, in Railway Magazine, page 82:
      Ahead of us the lowering smoke-screen of Leeds and her gloomy satellites hung like an incubus over the land.

Usage notes

  • The man-made telecommunication objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon.

Synonyms

  • (artificial orbital body): sat (abbreviation)

Hyponyms

Hyponyms of satellite

Derived terms

Translations

a body orbiting a larger one
country, state, office, building etc. under the control of another body
man-made apparatus designed to be placed in orbit around a celestial body
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

Verb

satellite (third-person singular simple present satellites, present participle satelliting, simple past and past participle satellited)

  1. (broadcasting, transitive) To transmit by satellite.
    • 1997, Alvin A. Snyder, Warriors of Disinformation, page 160:
      It had to speed up its efforts to participate in the international satellite television market. In the summer of 1986 it began satelliting TV programs to Africa, and in early 1987, to Asia and twenty countries in Latin America […]

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin satellitem (accusative singular of satelles).

Pronunciation

Noun

satellite m (plural satellites)

  1. satellite (moon or other celestial body)
  2. satellite (man-made apparatus)

Adjective

satellite (plural satellites)

  1. (relational) satellite (man-made apparatus)
    • 2013, Jean-Noël Marien, Émilien Dubiez, Dominique Louppe, Adélaïde Larzillière, Quand la ville mange la forêt: les défis du bois-énergie en Afrique centrale, →ISBN, page 45:
      Le couvert végétal du basin d’approvisionnement en bois-énergie de la ville de Kinshasa a été cartographié par images satellites
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Derived terms

Further reading

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin satellitem (originally 'attendant').

Pronunciation

Noun

satellite m (plural satelliti)

  1. satellite

Adjective

satellite (invariable)

  1. (relational) satellite

Further reading

  • satellite in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

Latin

Pronunciation

Noun

satellite

  1. ablative singular of satelles

Middle French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin satellitem, accusative singular of satelles.

Noun

satellite m (plural satellites)

  1. (military, Antiquity) a guard or watchman

Descendants

  • English: satellite
  • French: satellite
  • Dutch: satelliet

References

  • Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (satellite, supplement)

Norman

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

satellite f (plural satellites)

  1. (Jersey) satellite

Derived terms

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