satellite - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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

satellite (plural satellites)

  1. A moon or other smaller body orbiting a larger one. [from 17th c.]
    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. [from 20th c.]
    Many telecommunication satellites orbit at 36000km above the equator.
    • 2025 December 8, Ruskin Hartley, “More than just streaks: 5 truths from the astrophotographers documenting our crowded skies”, in DarkSky International‎[1]:
      A 2025 global survey revealed widespread satellite interference in astrophotography, with 90% of respondents reporting moderate or worse impacts and 97.5% stating that conditions have significantly worsened over the past five years. This interference carries a substantial burden, costing an average of 27 extra minutes of editing per image, and 78% of participants believe a critical threshold exists, estimated at a median of 25,000 satellites, beyond which astrophotography will be irreparably harmed.
  3. A country, state, office, building etc. which is under the jurisdiction, influence, or domination of another body. [from 19th c.]
  4. (now rare) An attendant on an important person; a member of someone's retinue, often in a somewhat derogatory sense; a henchman. [from 16th c.]
    • 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 […].
    • 1924, Agatha Christie, The Man in the Brown Suit:
      Inspector Meadows was a small man with a ginger head and what I considered a peculiarly irritating manner. A satellite, also in plain clothes, sat unobtrusively in a corner.
    • 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. [from 20th c.]
    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.

attendant on an important person

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

colloquial: satellite TV

grammatical construct

Translations to be checked

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 […]
  2. To orbit, like a satellite

Borrowed from Latin satellitem (accusative singular of satelles).

satellite m (plural satellites)

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

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)

Borrowed from Latin satellitem (originally 'attendant').

satellite m (plural satelliti)

  1. satellite

satellite (invariable)

  1. (relational) satellite

satellite

  1. ablative singular of satelles

Learned borrowing from Latin satelles.

satellite m (plural satellites)

  1. (military, Antiquity) a guard or watchman

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

satellite f (plural satellites)

  1. (Jersey) satellite