fissure

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fissure (“cut, crack”),^[2][3] borrowed from Old French fissure,^[4][2] recorded from the 13th century,^[5] and directly borrowed from Latin fissūra (“a cleft”),^[5][4][2][6] from fissus (“split”),^[3][7] the past participle of findō (“to split, cleave”),^[8][9] from Proto-Indo-European *bhind-, a nasalized form of *bheid- (“to split”).^[5] The OED gives only French as the immediate source,^[8] and Dictionary.com only Latin;^[10] Collins specifies medical Latin.^[11] Weekley notes that the Latin verb is ultimately related to bite.^[12][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A surgical term for a cut, crack or lesion: about 1400, in Lanfranc's Cirurgie,^[8] before 1400 in the Middle English Dictionary and Barnhart.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The word entered English in surgery, and the Shorter Oxford notes that it first meant especially a long wound or ulceration, and now chiefly a long cleft in rock or ice.^[13] In Middle English surgical texts it could also mean an incision.^[2] In 1486 the Book of St Albans used it as a term of heraldry.^[8] The general sense of a narrow cleft made by splitting appears in 1609, in Cawdrey,^[8] and Johnson (1755) defined it as a cleft, or a narrow chasm where a breach has been made.^[14] The anatomical use for a natural cleft in an organ, as in the brain, followed in 1656.^[8] In the 19th century the word was applied to divisions that are not physical, first found in 1876,^[8] and Merriam-Webster now records it for a deep disagreement that threatens a breakup.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – in surgery, a narrow wound or crack.^[8][2]
• 1486 – in heraldry, a diminutive of the bend sinister.^[8]
• 1609 – a long narrow cleft made by splitting.^[8]
• 1633 – the action of splitting; the state of being split.^[8]
• 1656 – a natural cleft in an organ.^[8] The verb, to cleave or split, is recorded the same year.^[8][9]
• 1876 – figuratively, of a division that is not physical.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A long, narrow crack or cleft, especially in rock or ice: A fissure opened across the glacier.^[11][9][13]
2. A deep disagreement or a serious weakness that threatens to break up a group or system: fissures within the ruling coalition.^[11][9]
3. In anatomy, a natural narrow groove that divides an organ, such as the brain, lung or liver, into lobes.^[11][9][8]
4. In pathology, a small abnormal crack in the skin or a mucous membrane, or in the surface of a tooth.^[11][8]
5. The action of splitting, or the state of being split.^[8][13]
6. In heraldry, a diminutive of the bend sinister.^[8][13]

Verb

1. To break into fissures; to crack or cleave: The drought had fissured the clay.^[11][9][8]

Word family

• fissural
• fissureless
• Sylvian fissure

Related words

• fissile
• fission
• bite

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.