Etymologically
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compartment

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /kəmˈpɑːtmənt/[1]
  • US: /kəmˈpɑɹtmənt/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French compartiment (“part partitioned off”),[2][3][4][5] from Italian compartimento,[2][3][6][4] from compartire (“to divide, share”),[2][6][7] from Late Latin compartior (“to divide, share”),[2][8][5][9] formed from Latin com-, here probably intensive,[3][6] and partior (“to share, apportion”),[2][9][6] from pars (“part”),[2][9][3] which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *pere- (“to grant, allot”).[3] Skeat quotes Cotgrave's French gloss "a partition".[10] The suffix corresponds to -ment.[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In architecture and art, a division or separate part of a design, such as a panel: 1564, in William Bullein's Dialogue against the Fever Pestilence.[5][2][4]

Semantic evolution

The word came in as a term of art and design, and the French form compartiment was long kept in artistic senses;[5] the Shorter Oxford also records copartment.[11] Johnson (1755) still defined it as "division; separate part of a design".[12] Other early uses were in heraldry, for a division of a shield (1590), in horticulture (1610–1814), and for a division of troops (1590).[5] The modern sense of a space partitioned off appears late: of a cavity in an animal or plant from 1772, of a section of a railway carriage from 1862, and of a watertight section of a ship from 1866.[5] The general sense of a separate section of anything is from 1791,[5] and the figurative use for a section of the mind or of a body of knowledge is recorded by Merriam-Webster and Collins.[4][9] The verb, to divide into compartments, dates from 1930.[5]

Timeline

  • 1564 – a division or separate part of a design.[5][2][4]
  • 1590 – in heraldry, a division of a shield.[5]
  • 1610 – in horticulture (obsolete by 1814).[5]
  • 1772 – a chamber in the body of an animal or plant.[5]
  • 1791 – a separate section of anything.[5]
  • 1862 – a section of a railway carriage.[5]
  • 1866 – a watertight section of a ship.[5]
  • 1930 – the verb, to divide into compartments.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. One of the separate sections into which an enclosed space is divided by partitions, such as a part of a railway carriage or a watertight section of a ship.[9][4][5]
  2. A small space or container for keeping things, such as a locker: a compartment for spare change.[9][4]
  3. A separate part or section of something abstract, such as the mind or a body of knowledge.[9][4]
  4. (architecture, art) A division of a surface or design, such as a panel in a ceiling.[4][5]

Verb

  1. To divide into compartments or separate units.[4][5]

Word family

  • compartmental
  • compartmentation
  • glove compartment

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.