Translation
to yawn
Word origin
From Latin oscitare, to gape or yawn, which is os ('mouth') plus a verb of moving. The same os gives English oral and osculate, and the rare English oscitant is the direct descendant of this very verb.
- Origin
- Latin
- Root
- oscitare
- English cognates
- oral, oscitant
Examples
.
The boy yawned and went to bed.
.
I yawned all the way through the speech.
, .
People yawn when they are tired.
One root, and an odd-looking one. has no prefix and no suffix.
The os- is not a particle, the -ced- is not the -ced- of , and
there is nothing to decompose. It is a single Latin verb arriving whole, which
is worth stating because the shape of the word invites a wrong guess. Say it
"os-TSE-di": the c is ts, as it always is in Esperanto.
The Latin behind it is a small free lesson. Oscitare breaks into os,
the mouth, and a verb of setting in motion. To yawn is to set the mouth going,
which is a fair description. The os in there is the same one that gives
English oral, and it is unrelated to the Esperanto
buŝo at rank 428, which came from French bouche.
Two words for the mouth, from two different Latin roads.
The family and the company it keeps. Oscedo is a yawn as a noun,
o the repeated business of yawning through a whole afternoon,
a the adjective for someone prone to it. The words around it are the
ones you would expect: laca at 884 for tired,
dormi at 262, enui at 1,479
for being bored, and nokto at 179. Note that
Esperanto, like English, lets a yawn mean boredom as well as tiredness, and
politely does not tell you which.
Where this fits
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oscedi: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "oscedi" (to yawn): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 59.