divorce

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /dɪˈvɔːs/, US /dɪˈvɔːrs/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English devorse, divorce,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French divorce,^[4][2][5] from Latin dīvortium (“separation, dissolution of marriage”),^[4][2] from dīvortere, a variant of dīvertere (“to turn aside, go different ways, leave one's husband”) (see divert).^[2][5][3] The verb is from Old French divorcer, from Late Latin dīvortiāre.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Legal dissolution of a marriage: 1377 in the OED, about 1378 in Barnhart, in a version of Piers Plowman.^[8][2]

Semantic evolution

Complete separation of things closely united is from about 1380 in the OED, the early 15th century in Etymonline.^[8][4] The verb, to put away a spouse, is from 1387, and to dissolve the marriage of a couple from 1494.^[8] Word Origins notes that divorce once covered several ways of ending a marriage, including annulment, as in Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon,^[9] and Etymonline that English did not distinguish it from legal separation until the mid-19th century.^[4] Divorcée, from French, was used in an English novel in 1813, and divorcee became the usual form in the 19th century.^[2][9]

Timeline

• 1377 – dissolution of a marriage.^[8]
• c. 1380 – complete separation.^[8]
• 1387 – the verb, to put away a spouse.^[8]
• 1494 – to dissolve a marriage.^[8]
• 1813 – divorcée.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The legal ending of a marriage.
2. A complete separation of things that were closely connected.

Verb

1. To end a marriage with one's spouse by legal divorce, or to dissolve a couple's marriage.
2. To separate or cut off completely.

Word family

• divorcement
• divorceable
• divorcer
• divorcive
• antidivorce
• divorcee
• nondivorce
• predivorce

Related words

• divert
• convert
• versus

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press