dehisco

Forms

dehīscō (present infinitive dehīscere, perfect active dehīvī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + hīscō (“to open the mouth, gape”).^[2][1][3] The OLD and the TLL take hīscō as the inchoative of hiō (“to gape”).^[2][3] De Vaan traces that verb to Proto-Italic *χi-ā- and Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₁i-eh₂- (“to gape, be wide open”), perhaps an old i-present, and compares Lithuanian žióti (“to open (one's mouth)”) and Old High German ginēn (“to be wide open”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short and the TLL first cite Varro, who has the perfect infinitive ⟨dehisse⟩ of the earth opening.^[5][3][2][6] In his Menippean satires doors freed from their bolts spring apart.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to split open, develop a gap, gape, above all of the earth: Virgil uses it of the yawning ground.^[5][2] Livy has a battle line gaping with gaps.^[2] Celsus uses it of bones that stand apart in the middle, and Pliny the Elder of a jaw gaping to the ears.^[2] Lewis & Short note that apart from Varro it is not found before Augustus.^[5] Priscian names it as a word whose long vowel is shortened, and glosses have contracted forms such as ⟨descit⟩.^[3]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro of the earth opening and of doors springing apart.^[5][2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of the yawning earth.^[5][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a gaping battle line.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a gaping jaw.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To split open, gape, yawn, develop a gap.^[2][5][1]
2. To stand apart, leave a gap.^[2]
3. Of a gap, to remain open.^[2]

Related words

• hiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de