English
dissect
Dissect comes from Latin dissectus ‘dissected’, from dissecare ‘to cut asunder, cut up’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sek-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sek-‘to cut’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sekaō‘to cut’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsecōas secare‘to cut’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdissecare‘to cut asunder, cut up’next step skipped: Latin dissecō
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdissectus‘dissected’past participle of dissecare
- Englishearliest quotation 2000dissect
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sek-‘to cut’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sekaō‘to cut’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsecōas secare‘to cut’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdissecare‘to cut asunder, cut up’next step skipped: Latin dissecō
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdissectus‘dissected’past participle of dissecare
- Englishearliest quotation 2000dissect
Earliest quotation: 2000, Winona Lu-Ann Stevenson, Decolonizing Tribal Histories: “Academics tend to take Indigenous oral histories out of…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *sek- ‘to cut’
saw, design, sign, ship, seal, sack, scarlet, sawyer, sax, shingle, scythe, sich, sigil, desiccation, sedge, sain, desiccant, 60 more
through Proto-Italic *sekaō ‘to cut’
sexuality, homosexual, 19 more
through Latin secō ‘to cut’
sex, risk, sexual, section, segment, sickle, het, insect, seg, brassica, 21 more
Today it means
verb To study an animal's anatomy by cutting it apart; to perform a necropsy or an autopsy.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *sek- / dissect