cxlvi

Theme for this month: Inchoative verbs

dehisco, dehiscere

Definition: to develop a gap, split open, gape; (w/ in + acc.) to split open (to form or show)

Sententia: Etiamsi ora legentum nostri temporis dehiscant, similis Iuliae, Romanae puellae saepe in matrimonium ductae sunt cum essent parvae, in nostris oculis.

Although the mouths of readers of our time may gape open, similar to Julia [age 13], Roman girls often were lead into marriage when they were young, in our eyes.

"Dehisco" is less common than "posco," but it is also found in books 1 and 4 of the Aeneid on the syllabus, and a couple other times. An interesting bit of trivia is that this word in poetry is primarily by Vergil--9 times total by Vergil in the Aeneid and the Georgicon, and then once each by Ovid and Lucanus, based on the data available in Perseus. This word comes from the prefix "de-," meaning in this case that the action is completely carried through, + "hio," meaning "to open," + "-sco," making it an inchoative.