assilio

Forms

assiliō (present infinitive assilīre, perfect active assiluī); fourth conjugation, no supine stem, third person-only in the passive^[1] It is also spelled adsiliō.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + saliō¹ (“to jump”).^[2][1] De Vaan traces that verb to Proto-Italic *sal-je- (“to jump”) and Proto-Indo-European *sh₂l-ie/o- (“to jump”), but regards the exact form of the root as uncertain.^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἅλλομαι (hállomai, “to jump”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest example Lewis & Short and Georges give is figurative: Cicero, in De oratore, advises that one should not leap straight into a particular kind of speech.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It is mostly poetic.^[3] Phaedrus uses it of someone leaping up with joy at a promised gift, and Columella of a stallion mounting a mare.^[2][5] Ovid and Statius apply it to water and waves dashing up against something, as the Aegean against its islands in Statius.^[2][5] In accounts of fighting it meant to rush to the attack: Tacitus writes of men who attacked unexpectedly, and Statius uses it with an object, to assault someone.^[2][5] Seneca the Elder uses it of throwing oneself gladly into a pursuit.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of leaping into a kind of speech.^[3][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of waves leaping up.^[2][5][6]
• c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus uses it of leaping up for joy.^[2][6]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of a stallion mounting a mare.^[2][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of a sudden assault.^[2][5][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To leap towards or upon, jump up.^[2][3]
2. Of male animals, to mount.^[2][5]
3. Of water, to dash against.^[2][5]
4. To make a sudden attack;^[2][5] (with an object) to assault.^[2][5]
5. To rush or jump (into a course of action or a subject).^[2][3]

Word family

• assultim
• assultō
• assultus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de