フランス語のsatellite, attendant, guardから、ラテン語のsatellites, attendant, attendantから、おそらく古ラテン語の*satro, full, sufficient, *leit, to go, to leadから、語源的にはleadと同じ。
英語の語源
satellite
satellite: [16] Satellite comes via French satellite from Latin satelles ‘attendant, escort’, which itself probably went back to Etruscan satnal. Its use for a ‘body orbiting a planet’ is first recorded in English in 1665, and comes from the astronomer Johannes Kepler’s application of Latin satelles to the moons of Jupiter.
satellite (n.)
1540s, "follower or attendant of a superior person," from Middle French satellite (14c.), from Latin satellitem (nominative satelles) "attendant, companion, courtier, accomplice, assistant," perhaps from Etruscan satnal (Klein), or a compound of roots *satro- "full, enough" + *leit- "to go" (Tucker); compare English follow, which is constructed of similar roots.
Meaning "planet that revolves about a larger one" first attested 1660s, in reference to the moons of Jupiter, from Latin satellites, which was used in this sense 1610s by German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). Galileo, who had discovered them, called them Sidera Medic?a in honor of the Medici family. Meaning "man-made machinery orbiting the Earth" first recorded 1936 as theory, 1957 as fact. Meaning "country dependent and subservient to another" is recorded from 1800.
例文
1. The coded signal is received by satellite dish aerials.
符号化信号は、ディスク型衛星アンテナによって受信される。
2.Something must have gone wrong with the satellite link.
衛星接続に間違いがあったに違いない。
3.The satellite had been inactive since its launch two years ago.
この衛星は2年前に打ち上げられて以来機能していない。
4.NASA plans to launch a satellite to study cosmic rays.
米航空宇宙局は、宇宙線を研究するための衛星を打ち上げたいと計画している。
5.The live satellite broadcast was beamed into homes across America.