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Origin and history of dehiscence

dehiscence(n.)

"a gaping," in botany, "the discharge of seeds or pollen," 1828, from Modern Latin dehiscentia, from dehiscentem (nominative dehiscens), present participle of dehiscere "to gape, open, split down" (of the earth, etc.), from de- (see de-) + hiscere, inchoative of hiare "to yawn" (see yawn (v.)). Related: Dehisce (1650s); dehiscent (1640s).

also from 1828

Entries linking to dehiscence

yawn(v.)

c. 1300, yenen, yonen, "open the mouth wide," from Old English ginian, gionian, from Proto-Germanic *gin-, which is reconstructed to be from PIE root *ghieh- "to yawn, gape, be wide open."

Especially by mid-15c. as "open the mouth involuntarily through drowsiness or boredom." Formerly also to gape with wonder, surprise, etc. Modern spelling is from 16c. Related: Yawned; yawning; yawningly.

The Proto-Germanic word also is reconstructed to be the source of Old English giwian, giowian, giwan "to request," Old Norse gina "to yawn," Dutch geeuwen, Old High German ginen "be wide open," German gähnen "to yawn."

de-

active word-forming element in English and in many verbs inherited from French and Latin, from Latin de "down, down from, from, off; concerning" (see de), also used as a prefix in Latin, usually meaning "down, off, away, from among, down from," but also "down to the bottom, totally" hence "completely" (intensive or completive), which is its sense in many English words.

As a Latin prefix it also had the function of undoing or reversing a verb's action, and hence it came to be used as a pure privative — "not, do the opposite of, undo" — which is its primary function as a living prefix in English, as in defrost (1895), defuse (1943), de-escalate (1964), etc. In some cases, a reduced form of dis-.

*ghieh-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to yawn, gape, be wide open." 

It might form all or part of: chaos; chasm; dehiscence; gap; gasp; gawp; hiatus; yawn.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit vijihite "to gape, be ajar;" Greek khainein, Latin hiare "to yawn, gape;" Old Church Slavonic zinoti "to open (one's mouth);" Russian razinut', Serbo-Croatian zinuti, Lithuanian žioju, žioti, Czech zivati "to yawn;" Old English ginian, gionian "open the mouth wide, yawn, gape," Old Norse gina "to yawn," Dutch geeuwen, Old High German ginen "to be wide open," German gähnen "to yawn."

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