Etymologically
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desilio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deːˈsɪ.li.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [deˈs̬iː.li.o][1]

Forms

dēsiliō (present infinitive dēsilīre, perfect active dēsiluī, supine dēsultum); fourth conjugation[1] Plautus has the perfect desuluērunt.[2][3] Besides dēsiluī the perfects dēsilīvī and dēsiliī occur from Columella on.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + saliō (“to jump”).[2][1][4] De Vaan derives ⟨saliō⟩ from Proto-Italic *sal-je- and Proto-Indo-European *sh₂l-ie/o- (“to jump”), cognate with Ancient Greek ἅλλομαι (hállomai, “to jump”) and Old Irish saltraid (“to trample”), but calls the form of the root uncertain.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[5] whose Rudens has it in the old perfect form desuluērunt, of leaping down.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It is “to leap down”, and in particular to jump down from a horse or vehicle: Cicero has someone jump down from a carriage, and Caesar's cavalry leapt down to fight on foot.[2] Poets use it of things falling or rushing down, as Horace's waters leaping from the rock and Propertius' thunderbolts from heaven.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “leap”.[6] From its supine came dēsultor, a circus rider who jumped from horse to horse, whose adjective is the source of English desultory (1580s).[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has the perfect desuluērunt.[2][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of jumping down from a carriage.[2][8]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of horsemen dismounting.[2][8]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of water leaping down.[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To leap or jump down.[2][3][1][6]
  2. To jump down from a horse or vehicle, dismount.[2][1]
  3. Of water, lightning and the like, to rush or fall down.[2]

Word family

  • desulto
  • dēsultor
  • desultrix
  • dēsultūra

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de