dissilio

Forms

dissiliō (present infinitive dissilīre, perfect active dissiluī, supine dissultum); fourth conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dis- + saliō (“to leap”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces saliō to Proto-Italic *sal-je- (“to jump”) and Proto-Indo-European *sh₂l̥-ye/o- (“to jump”), comparing Ancient Greek ἅλλομαι (hállomai, “to jump”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lucretius has it first, of two broad bodies that spring apart after a collision.^[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it poetic and post-Augustan prose.^[5] Lucretius also has stones that burst in the heat, and the walls of the world that seem to have burst apart.^[5][2] Pliny the Elder writes of flint bursting in fire.^[5] The perfect is usually ⟨dissiluī⟩, but some manuscripts of Ovid and the Vulgate have ⟨dissiliit⟩.^[3]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of bodies springing apart.^[2][5][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of bursting flint.^[5][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To spring or fly apart.^[2][5][1]
2. To burst apart, split.^[2][5][1]

Word family

• dissultō

Related words

• saliō
• dēsiliō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b 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 g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de