dischiudere

Forms

dischiudere (first-person singular present dischiùdo, first-person singular past historic dischiùsi, past participle dischiùso, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin disclūdere (“to separate, divide; to open”), formed from dis- and claudō (“to close”), and reshaped after chiudere.^[2][3][4][5] The LEI files the Italian word as a Latinism; the inherited outcomes of the Latin verb are Old French desclore and Catalan descloure.^[6] Devoto explains the /u/ as the regular outcome of ⟨au⟩ in an inner syllable in Latin, with the influence of the simple verb.^[7] The TLIO, by contrast, derives it within Italian from schiudere.^[8] The Latin verb for “close” goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂u- (“to shut”), with a d-extension.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the form deschiudere in the Laude cortonesi of about 1260, meaning “to open”.^[2][10] The form dischiudere first appears in Dante, before 1321, in the Rime and the Commedia.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Dante used the verb in senses that did not last: “to let out (a sound)”, “to keep shut out, exclude” and “to make manifest”; in Paradiso he writes la prova che 'l ver mi dischiude / son l'opere seguite (“the proof that discloses the truth to me is the works that followed”).^[8][10] The sense “exclude” still occurs in Florence in 1363.^[6]

Later the word became a literary verb for opening doors and passages (from Tasso, 1581), for bringing things to light and, in the late 18th century, for making something gush forth (1766) and for developing a faculty (1803).^[6][11] Tommaseo thought it confined to verse.^[12] Today it is a common word for opening something partly, eyes, lips or a door, and in the reflexive for flowers and buds opening.^[10][13][4]

Timeline

• c. 1260 – Deschiudere “to open” appears in the Laude cortonesi.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses dischiudere for “to open” and “to reveal”.^[2][8]
• 1315–1321 – The Sienese translation of the Aeneid by Ugurgieri uses it for undoing a closure.^[6]
• 1363 – Ristoro Canigiani uses it for “to exclude”.^[6]
• 1581 – Tasso uses it for opening doors.^[6]
• 1922 – Borgese uses it without an object, “to open”.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To open partly, schiudere: Dischiuse appena gli occhi.^[10][13][5]
2. (figurative, literary) To reveal, make known.^[10][13][5]
3. (archaic) To exclude.^[10][13][14]
4. (reflexive, dischiudersi) To open, of a door, eyes or flowers: All'alba i boccioli si dischiudono.^[13][5][14]

Word family

• ridischiudere

Related words

• chiudere
• schiudere
• Latin claudō

Usage notes

It is conjugated like chiudere: past historic dischiusi, past participle dischiuso.^[13][1]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana