Etymologically
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fissilis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfɪs.sɪ.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfis.si.lis][1]

Forms

fissilis (neuter fissile); third-declension two-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin fissus + -ilis, formed on the past participle of findō (“to split”).[2][1][3] De Vaan says it was derived productively from that participle;[4] the verb goes back to Proto-Italic *find-e- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰi-n-d- (“to cleave”).[4] Cognate with Sanskrit भिनत्ति (bhinátti, “splits”) and Old English bītan (“to bite”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,[4][5] whose Aulularia has a comic threat that someone who came near the hearth would not carry off his head unsplit, non fissile auferres caput.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Its usual sense is easily split, said above all of wood:[2][3] Virgil's Georgics have the first men splitting fissile wood with wedges, and his Aeneid an oak that splits easily.[6][3] Pliny the Elder uses it of reed and of a vein of stone, and Columella of a split prop that lasts longer than a round stake.[6][2] In a few places it means split or cleft, as in Plautus and in Columella's split stake.[2][6] Lewis and Short call it rare and note that it is not in Cicero or Caesar.[6]

British medieval writers kept it: Osbern of Gloucester explains it as what can quickly be split.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in a comic threat.[2][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of wood split with wedges.[3][5]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it of a split stake.[2][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of reed and stone.[6][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Easily split, fissile.[2][6]
  2. Split, cleft.[2][6]

Word family

  • trifissilis

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press