cenit

Inherited from Old Czech cěniti, from Proto-Slavic *cěniti.

• IPA^(key): [ˈt͡sɛɲɪt]

cenit impf

1. to value, to prize

• “ceniti”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “ceniti”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “cenit”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech)

• ceniz

From misreading earlier cemt, from Arabic سَمْت (samt, “direction, path”), from Aramaic סֵימִטָא, from Latin sēmĭta.

• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃe.nit/, [ˈt͡ʃɛːnit̪]

cenit n (indeclinable) (Medieval Latin)

1. (astronomy) zenith (point in the sky vertically above a given position or observer)
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:cenit.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Plato Tiburtinus to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor to this entry?)

• → Middle English: cenyth, cenith, senyth, cenit, cinit, senith (learned)
  • English: zenith
• → Old French: cenit m (learned)
  • Middle French: zenith
    • French: zénith

• cenith in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• Paul Kunitzsch, The Arabs and the Stars: Texts and Traditions on the Fixed Stars and Their Influence in Medieval Europe, Routledge (→ISBN), 2017: Latin translators borrowed it as cemt/zemt capitis, and finally cemt/zemt was misread and miswritten, in Latin, as cenit/Zenit.

cenit

1. Alternative spelling of cenyth

cenit oblique singular, m (oblique plural ceniz or cenitz, nominative singular ceniz or cenitz, nominative plural cenit)

1. zenith (point in the sky vertically above a given position or observer)

• Middle French: zenith
  • French: zénith

• cénit, zenit
• zénit (rare)

Borrowed from Medieval Latin cenit, from Arabic سَمْت (samt, “direction, path”), from the fuller form سَمْت اَلرَّأْس (samt ar-raʔs, “direction of the head”). The -ni- for -m- is sometimes thought to be due to a misreading of the three strokes, which is plausible, though it could be a mere phonetic approximation.

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /θeˈnit/ [θeˈnit̪]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /seˈnit/ [seˈnit̪]
• Rhymes: -it
• Syllabification: ce‧nit

cenit m (plural cenites)

1. zenith

   Synonym: auge

• “cenit”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28