exsilio

Forms

exsiliō (present infinitive exsilīre, perfect active exsiluī); fourth conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1] It is also spelled exiliō, and manuscripts mix both spellings.^[2][3] Besides exsiluī the perfect has exsilīvī and exsiliī in Plautus, Seneca and Statius.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + saliō (“to leap”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces saliō to Proto-Italic *sal-je- (“to jump”) and compares Ancient Greek ἅλλομαι (hállomai, “to jump”); he sets up Proto-Indo-European *sh₂l-ie/o- but regards the form of the root as uncertain.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the OLD's earliest quotation Plautus tells people to stand inside the threshold so that they leap out the moment they hear his call.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is to spring out or leap up, and as a sign of emotion to start up: Cicero has a man roused by a guilty conscience, and the phrase ⟨gaudiō exsilīre⟩ is to leap for joy.^[2] Of things it is to spring up or out: Lucretius has beams that water forces up so they leap out, and light leaping out when stone strikes iron.^[2] Pliny the Elder uses it of leaves springing from shoots.^[2] Cassiodorus, following Caesellius, says it must be written with ⟨s⟩.^[3] Church Latin glosses it to leap out, spring up, rise.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of leaping out at a call.^[2][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of beams and of sparks.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of starting up from a guilty conscience.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of leaves springing forth.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To spring out, leap up, jump out; to start up from fear or joy.^[2][4][1][7]
2. Of things, to spring up; of flames, to burst forth.^[2][4]
3. Of plants, to spring forth.^[2]

Related words

• saliō

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 n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ 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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson