syrtis

English

Alternative forms

• syrt

Etymology

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

• IPA^(key): /sərtəz/

Noun

syrtis (plural syrtes)

1. (archaic) Synonym of quicksand.
2. (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

• “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

Etymology

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

syrtis f (genitive syrtis); third declension

1. 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 the Southeaster drives from the deep sea onto shallow sandbanks – miserable to behold – and dashes on the shoals and surrounds 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

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

Descendants

• → English: syrtis, syrt