Note: the Hindi and Sanskrit paths disagree here — the Hindi dictionary reading is negative (“spirituous, liquor”) while the Sanskrit reading is not. Both are shown below; read them together before choosing.
As a deity name
Name 203 of the Lakshmi Sahasranāma — Skanda Purana / Sanat Kumara Samhita, as taught by Sages Sanatkumara and Devotees
Name 491 of the Lakshmi Sahasranāma — Skanda Purana / Sanat Kumara Samhita, as taught by Sages Sanatkumara and Devotees
As a Hindi name
Note: the Hindi and Sanskrit paths disagree here — the Hindi dictionary reading is negative (“spirituous, liquor”) while the Sanskrit reading is not. Both are shown below; read them together before choosing.
सीता · noun · feminine
वह रेखा जो जमीन जोतते समय हल की फाल के धँसने से पड़ती जाती है । कूँड़ · मिथिला के राजा सीरध्वज जनक की कन्या जो श्रीरामचंद्र जी की पत्न्नी थी · वह भूमि जिसपर राजा की खेती होती हो । राजा की निज की भूमि । सीर — Śabdasāgara
सीता · sītā · s.f.
The track of a ploughshare, a furrow; husbandry; spirituous liquor — Platts (1884), digital edition courtesy DSAL, University of Chicago, p. 709
सीता · feminine
Sita (an avatar of Lakshmi) and wife of Lord Rāma; a female given name, Sita, from Sanskrit; Seetha (a river in Karnataka, India)
Cited formation "सीता" is सीत + -आ: सीत means "Cold, cool, chilly, &c. (see śīt)", and the suffix -आ forms abstract, agent, action or instrumental nouns (masc.); also past participles. CHD Basic Grammar App. I §8(3) — cited from the extracted rule table — base gloss: Platts (1884), digital edition courtesy DSAL, University of Chicago
Cited formation "सीता" is सीत + -आ: सीत means "Cold, cool, chilly, &c. (see śīt)", and the suffix -आ forms 'having' (adjectives). CHD Basic Grammar App. I §9(1) — cited from the extracted rule table — base gloss: Platts (1884), digital edition courtesy DSAL, University of Chicago
a Hindi word, a tatsama: the Sanskrit word borrowed unchanged into Hindi सीता — per Wiktionary’s etymology record
“Learned borrowing from Sanskrit सीता (sītā). First attested in c. 1700 as Middle Hindi سیتا (syta /sītā/).” — per Wiktionary’s etymology record
sītā f. (less correctly written śītā; cf. sīman, sīra) a furrow, the track or line of a ploughshare (also personified, and apparently once worshipped as a kind of goddess resembling Pomona; in RV. iv, 57, 6, Sītā is invoked as presiding over agriculture or the fruits of the earth; in VS. xii, 69-72, Sītā ‘the Furrow’ is again personified and addressed, four furrows being required to be drawn at the ceremony when the above stanzas are recited; in TBr. she is called sāvitrī, and in PārGṛ. indra-patnī, ‘the wife of Indra’; in epic poetry S˚ is the wife of Rāmacandra and daughter of Janaka, king of Mithilā, capital of Videha, who was otherwise called Sīradhvaja; she was named Sītā because fabled to have sprung from a furrow made by Janaka while ploughing the ground to prepare it for a sacrifice instituted by him to obtain progeny, whence her epithet Ayoni-jā, ‘not womb-born’; her other common names, Maithilī and Vaidehī, are from the place of her birth; according to one legend she was Vedavatī q.v., in the Kṛta age; accord. to others she was an incarnation of Lakṣmi and of Umā; the story of Rāma's bending the bow, which was to be the condition of the gift of Sītā, is told in R. i, 67; Sītā's younger sister Urmilā was at the same time given to Lakṣmaṇa, and two nieces of Janaka, daughters of his brother king Kuśa-dhvaja, to Bharata and Śatrughna), RV. &c. &c., IW. 335 n. 1; 337 &c.
N. of a form of Dākṣāyaṇī, Cat.
As a Sanskrit word
Meaning
a furrow, the track or line of a ploughshare (also personified, and apparently once worshipped as a kind of goddess resembling Pomona; in, Sītā is invoked as presiding over agricul…
Scripturally attested Verified derivationMultiple readings (5)Why this matches what you typed
M3 · meaning shifts "sītā" is derived from "sī" with the tal suffix — a related word whose meaning shifts, so both meanings are shown.
1. sī a word used in learning letters (?), Divyāv.
2. sī (either invented to account for sītā below or a lost root meaning) ‘to draw a straight line’
sītā f. (less correctly written śītā; cf. sīman, sīra) a furrow, the track or line of a ploughshare (also personified, and apparently once worshipped as a kind of goddess resembling Pomona; in RV. iv, 57, 6, Sītā is invoked as presiding over agriculture or the fruits of the earth; in VS. xii, 69-72, Sītā ‘the Furrow’ is again personified and addressed, four furrows being required to be drawn at the ceremony when the above stanzas are recited; in TBr. she is called sāvitrī, and in PārGṛ. indra-patnī, ‘the wife of Indra’; in epic poetry S˚ is the wife of Rāmacandra and daughter of Janaka, king of Mithilā, capital of Videha, who was otherwise called Sīradhvaja; she was named Sītā because fabled to have sprung from a furrow made by Janaka while ploughing the ground to prepare it for a sacrifice instituted by him to obtain progeny, whence her epithet Ayoni-jā, ‘not womb-born’; her other common names, Maithilī and Vaidehī, are from the place of her birth; according to one legend she was Vedavatī q.v., in the Kṛta age; accord. to others she was an incarnation of Lakṣmi and of Umā; the story of Rāma's bending the bow, which was to be the condition of the gift of Sītā, is told in R. i, 67; Sītā's younger sister Urmilā was at the same time given to Lakṣmaṇa, and two nieces of Janaka, daughters of his brother king Kuśa-dhvaja, to Bharata and Śatrughna), RV. &c. &c., IW. 335 n. 1; 337 &c.
N. of a form of Dākṣāyaṇī, Cat.
Dictionary citations
sītā f. (less correctly written śītā; cf. sīman, sīra) a furrow, the track or line of a ploughshare (also personified, and apparently once worshipped as a kind of goddess resembling Pomona; in RV. iv, 57, 6, Sītā is invoked as presiding over agriculture or the fruits of the earth; in VS. xii, 69-72, Sītā ‘the Furrow’ is again personified and addressed, four furrows being required to be drawn at the ceremony when the above stanzas are recited; in TBr. she is called sāvitrī, and in PārGṛ. indra-patnī, ‘the wife of Indra’; in epic poetry S˚ is the wife of Rāmacandra and daughter of Janaka, king of Mithilā, capital of Videha, who was otherwise called Sīradhvaja; she was named Sītā because fabled to have sprung from a furrow made by Janaka while ploughing the ground to prepare it for a sacrifice instituted by him to obtain progeny, whence her epithet Ayoni-jā, ‘not womb-born’; her other common names, Maithilī and Vaidehī, are from the place of her birth; according to one legend she was Vedavatī q.v., in the Kṛta age; accord. to others she was an incarnation of Lakṣmi and of Umā; the story of Rāma's bending the bow, which was to be the condition of the gift of Sītā, is told in R. i, 67; Sītā's younger sister Urmilā was at the same time given to Lakṣmaṇa, and two nieces of Janaka, daughters of his brother king Kuśa-dhvaja, to Bharata and Śatrughna), RV. &c. &c., IW. 335 n. 1; 337 &c.
N. of a form of Dākṣāyaṇī, Cat.
of a poetess, Cat.
of a river, MBh.; R. &c.
of the eastern branch of the four mythical branches of the heavenly Ganges (into which it is supposed to divide after falling on mount Meru; this branch is fabled to flow into the Varṣa or Dvīpa called Bhadrāśva), L.
1. sī a word used in learning letters (?), Divyāv.
2. sī (either invented to account for sītā below or a lost root meaning) ‘to draw a straight line’
Alternative readings
More than one analysis survives full verification. That ambiguity is real, so we show every reading rather than pick one silently.
Caveats
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