Gap originates from the Latin term “hiatus”, whose meaning is “opening, crack, gap”, covering different concepts and applications.
According to the linguistics, hiatus is the meeting of two vowel sounds whose vowels are separated in the division of syllables. It takes two voice efforts to pronounce them, unlike a diphthong in which there is a single voice effort and the vowels remain in the same syllable.
Some examples of gaps are:
hiatus (hi-a-to)
country (pOuchs)
claus (noo-andl)
Day Di-a)
idea (i-dei-a)
In the case of the word "idea" there is also the diphthong "ei", since the two vowels are together in the same syllable: "i-dHey-The".
In anatomy, a gap, an opening or an orifice inside the human body is called a hiatus. For example: fallopian hiatus, a small opening on the upper surface of the temporal bone; hiatus hernia, characterized by the passage of part of the stomach to the chest through the orifice of the diaphragm (also called esophageal hiatus).
In geology, the gap is related to the concept of disagreements, which are surfaces that divide two rocks with different ages, knowing that there was a time interval (hiatus) in the formation of both. In this case, the gap is verified when there is no sedimentation of some elements.
In the figurative sense, a gap represents a failure, a gap. It can also be defined as an interruption between two events.
See also: O meaning of hiatus.
