asunder

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English asunder, also asonder,^[2] inherited from Old English on sundran (“apart, separately”), also on sundrum,^[2][3][4][5] formed from Old English on (“on”) + sundor (“apart, separately”).^[2][3][5][6] The OED explains it as apparently an adverbial phrase in which the preposition governs the dative of a noun use of sundor, although that word is not attested as an independent adjective in Old English.^[7] It appears in early West Saxon as on sundrum,^[7] and already in Old English the first element and the ending were being reduced, in spellings such as asundron and asundran.^[7] The OED compares Old Saxon an sundron.^[7] The Germanic base, Proto-Germanic *sundraz,^[1][8][9] is also the source of Old Norse sundr, Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐌽𐌳𐍂𐍉 (sundrō, “apart, alone”), Old High German suntar and Old Frisian sunder.^[8][10] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *sen- (“apart, separated”),^[6] and Orel explains the Germanic form as showing a comparative suffix, comparing Ancient Greek ἄτερ (áter, “without, far from”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Separately, individually, apart from others, sometimes in private: Old English, in the West Saxon Gospels (Mark 4:34).^[7] Dictionary.com dates the word to before 1000.^[11] The revised OED thus supersedes the later first dates in Etymonline (mid-12th century)^[6] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged (14th century).^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, "separately, individually", did not last: the OED follows it from Old English to 1703,^[7] and the Shorter Oxford only to the mid-16th century, quoting Coverdale's "But me called he a sonder to be his preacher".^[4] Of two or more people or things, "apart from one another" is also Old English, recorded in Genesis B.^[7] Before 1325, in Genesis and Exodus, the word also described motion away from each other and, chiefly with verbs of violence such as rend, tear, break and split, division into pieces.^[7][4] Middle English added uses for telling things apart: "distinct in kind, unlike" is in Chaucer's Summoner's Tale about 1405,^[7] and to know asunder, to tell apart, in Lydgate's Troy Book about 1425.^[7][6] The OED follows these to 1888 and 1879 and marks them obsolete,^[7] while the Shorter Oxford calls them archaic.^[4] To put asunder, to separate or split up, is recorded from before 1450, in Lydgate's Siege of Thebes.^[7] Johnson (1755) gave only "apart; separately; not together".^[12]

Timeline

• Old English – separately, individually (obsolete by 1703).^[7]
• Old English – apart from one another, in Genesis B.^[7]
• before 1325 – apart in direction or motion; into separate parts or pieces.^[7]
• c. 1405 – distinct in kind, unlike.^[7]
• c. 1425 – to know asunder, to tell apart.^[7][6]
• before 1450 – to put asunder, to separate.^[7]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Into separate parts or pieces, usually with violence: The storm ripped the old barn asunder.^[2][7][13]
2. Apart from each other in position or direction: The two villages lie far asunder.^[2][7][13]
3. Distinct from each other in kind or nature; different, as in poles asunder.^[2][7]
4. (archaic) So as to tell two similar things apart, in to know asunder.^[4][7][2]
5. (obsolete, Old English–1703) Separately or individually; in private.^[7][4]

Related words

• sunder
• sundry

Usage notes

The OED also has a rare verb asunder, to separate or become separated, which it derives separately from the prefix a- and the verb sunder, Old English āsundrian, perhaps reinforced by the adverb.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins