transilio

Forms

trānsiliō (present infinitive trānsilīre, perfect active trānsiluī); fourth conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1] It is also spelled transs-.^[2][3] The perfect is usually trānsiluī;^[2][3] trānsilīvī occurs in Plautus and Pliny the Elder, and trānsiliī in Seneca and the Bellum Hispaniense.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin trāns- + saliō (“to jump, leap”).^[2][1] De Vaan traces ⟨saliō⟩ to Proto-Italic *sal-je- (“to jump”) and Proto-Indo-European *sh₂l-ie/o- (“to jump”), cognate with Ancient Greek ἅλλομαι (hállomai, “to jump”) and Old Irish saltraid (“to trample”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] in whose Truculentus a young man leapt over through the garden behind his father's back.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is “to leap across” and, with an object, “to jump over”, as Virgil's Turnus leaping over the high gangways.^[2] Florus uses it of travelling swiftly over great distances.^[2][1] Figuratively it is to pass abruptly from one course to another, as Seneca's people who jump from one plan to the next; to skip over a point in argument, as Cicero's passing over what lies at one's feet; and to overstep limits: Varro says a poet may cross the lines with impunity.^[2] Seneca also has an illness passing lightly over someone who bears it.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “leap over, skip over, neglect, hasten past”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of leaping over a wall.^[2][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of overstepping limits.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of skipping over a point.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of jumping over gangways.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To leap across, jump over; to travel swiftly far.^[2][3][1][5]
2. To pass abruptly to something else.^[2]
3. To pass over, skip, neglect; of an illness, to pass by.^[2][5]
4. To overstep, exceed limits.^[2]

Word family

• transilis

Related words

• saliō
• trānsilītiō
• trānsilītor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de