Etymologically
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insilio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ĩːˈsɪ.li.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [inˈsiː.li.o][1]

Forms

īnsiliō (present infinitive īnsilīre, perfect active īnsiluī or īnsilīvī or īnsiliī, supine īnsultum); fourth conjugation, no passive[1] Plautus has the spelling insuliō.[2][3] Besides the perfect in -uī, forms in -īvī and -iī occur, and Quadrigarius has the imperfect insilibat.[3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + saliō1 (“to leap, jump”).[2][1][3] De Vaan traces saliō1 to Proto-Italic *sal-je- (“to jump”) and Proto-Indo-European *sh2l-ie/o-, but regards the reconstruction of the root as uncertain.[5] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἅλλομαι (hállomai, “to jump”) and Old Irish saltraid (“to trample”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Plautus on,[3] whose Rudens has in scapham insiluimus, “we jumped into the skiff”.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It means to leap into or onto something, with in and the accusative, with the plain accusative or the dative, or absolutely:[2][4] Lucilius has someone leap on a man's head, Caesar soldiers leaping onto the enemy's phalanxes, Livy a man leaping onto his horse, and Horace a leap into Etna.[2] Pliny the Elder says a vine shoot mounts the trellis, and Silius Italicus uses it of the sea.[2] Plautus jokes about leaping into the worst of torments, which Lewis and Short take as being crucified.[2][4]

From the sense of leaping on to attack, Apuleius has dogs springing at a man from all sides, and Statius has a goddess fall upon Thebes.[2] The frequentative īnsultō grew from it.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of jumping into a skiff.[2][6]
  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it of leaping on a man's head.[2][6]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of soldiers leaping onto the phalanxes.[2][6]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a vine shoot climbing.[2][6]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of dogs attacking.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To leap into or onto, jump on; to mount.[2][4]
  2. To spring at, leap on (to attack).[2][4]

Word family

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 o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b 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