Etymologically
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fissum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfɪs.sũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfis.sum][1]

Forms

fissum n (genitive fissī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin findō (“to split”): the noun is the neuter of fissus (“split”), the verb's perfect passive participle.[2][1][3] The verb goes back to Proto-Italic *find-e- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰi-n-d- (“to cleave”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[3] who has implēvistī fūstī fissōrum caput “you have filled my head with cracks with your cudgel”.[4]

Semantic evolution

In Cicero it is a technical word of haruspicy, a cleft in the liver of a sacrificed animal, examined with the other entrails: the De dīvīnātiōne speaks of what a cleft in the entrails or a fibre signifies.[5][4][1] Celsus uses it of fissures of the anus.[5] English fissure is from the related fissūra.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of cracks in a beaten head.[4][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the cleft of the liver in haruspicy.[5][4][7]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of anal fissures.[5][7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cleft, fissure, split.[2][4]
  2. (religion) The cleft of the liver in a victim's entrails, read by the haruspex.[5][4][1]
  3. (medicine) A fissure of the anus.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de