Etymology

ciss

C3I1S1S1

Today it means: To retract (from a uniform film applied to a damp, oily or nonabsorbent surface) and clump up into small droplets, or form craters. Full definition →

Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

Perhaps ultimately derived in some way from Vulgar Latin *cisellum (from *caesellum, from caedō), whence e.g. French cission, ciseau and other words with senses related to cutting and separating, or perhaps from the same root as scission (“division, separating”) (Latin scissus, scindō), or even a conflation of the two as in scissor, whence sciss (“cut with scissors”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.