sagittary

noun

1. (archaic)A centaur, half-human and half-horse.

   “the dreadful Sagittary / Appals our numbers”

   “[...] lion, to tread down all that shall oppose them; and though many sagittaries shall appear in defence of the Lilies, yet shall they not prevail ; because the dull animal of the North shall be put to confusion; and though it be against […] the chief strength of France, consisting of horsemen who appeared like sagittaries, that is to say half men and half horses: […]”

   “... Hard by the condor's eyrie and caverns of the cougar, The centaurs dwell, those savage sagittaries, With their shoulders unharnessed nor their trampling hooves shod But their broad brows are brother to the human.”

2. (capitalized, often)A mythical compound creature, resembling a centaur (half-human, half-horse) or a half-human, half-lion, often armed with a bow and arrows.

   “Gules, three Sagittaries - or, three torteaux. Stephen's cognizance was a Sagittary, because he entered England when the Sun was in that sign, and was greatly indebted for his success to mounted archers.”

   “And all beasts azure are armed gules, and vice versa. The Sagittary is well known as the representation of the […]”

   “to have borne on a red shield, three golden centaurs armed with bows and arrows, or "Sagittaries;" it has been conjectured, however, that this idea may have arisen from the circumstance of the "Sagittary" having been Stephen's[…]”

   “Gules, three sagittaries, in pale, or. These sagittaries are generally blazoned as compound creatures, half man and half lion, as in Fig. 19.”

   “[The coat-]of-arms of Normandy is "Gules, two lions guardant or," and it is supposed that this coat was used by our Norman kings with the exception of Stephen - who is credited with three centaurs with bows and arrows - Sagittaries.”

3. (archaic)An archer; by extension, a coin used in ancient Persia and Greece featuring an archer.

   “Born till Crassus perished by them, at which time a Sagittary was blazoned in their Royal Standard: [...] Darius being stamped on the one side and a Sagittary (his coat-armour) on the other; memorized by Plutarch in the life of Agesilaus, who complained that his design of conquering Asia was prevented by thirty thousand Sagittaries; meaning a Bribe of so many[…]”

name

1. (alt-of, obsolete)Obsolete form of Sagittarius.

   “Libra, or the Balance holdeth in the Navel, the Reins, and the lower parts of the Womb. The Scorpion keepeth the Bladder, Buttocks, and other privatives [sic] of Man or Woman. The Sagitary dwelleth in the Thighs and Buttocks; and theſe three are the ſigns of Harveſt.”