dissulto

Forms

dissultō (present infinitive dissultāre); first conjugation, no passive, no perfect or supine stems^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dissiliō (“to leap apart”) + -tō, a frequentative made on the participle stem ⟨dissult-⟩.^[2][1] The TLL compares both dissiliō and saltō (“to dance”).^[3] The base verb saliō¹ (“to jump”) goes back to Proto-Italic *sal-je- and Proto-Indo-European *sh₂l-ie/o- (“to jump”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lucretius uses it first, of first particles that cannot leap apart freely because they are held in by the whole body.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a word of poetry and of post-Augustan prose, from Seneca on.^[3][5] It is said of things that burst asunder or fly in pieces: Virgil has river banks bursting apart, Seneca the darts of fortune bouncing off like hail, and Pliny the Elder iron flying apart.^[3][5] Of sound and light it means to burst out on all sides: Virgil's crashes of thunder, the flashing of water lit by the sun in Silius, and in Ausonius forums that resound with shouting.^[3][2]

Martianus Capella once uses it transitively, “to spread abroad”, and medieval Latin kept the senses “burst out”, “resound” and “proclaim”.^[3][6]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of atoms leaping apart.^[3][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of river banks and thunder.^[3][5][7]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca brings it into prose.^[3][7]
• 25–101 AD – Silius Italicus uses it of flashing light.^[2][7]
• c. 310–394 AD – Ausonius uses it of forums resounding with shouts.^[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To leap apart, burst asunder, fly in pieces; to bounce off.^[2][5]
2. Of sound or light, to burst out or flash in all directions.^[2][3]
3. (Late Latin) To spread abroad, proclaim.^[3][6]

Related words

• dissiliō
• saltō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de