partition

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English particioun, also partisoun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French particion,^[3][2][5] also Anglo-Norman particion and partison,^[5][6] and partly from Latin partītiō (“a sharing, division, distribution”),^[5][3][7][8] from partior (“to divide, share”) (past participle partītus),^[7][8][9] from pars (“part, piece, share”),^[3][7] from Proto-Indo-European *pere- (“to grant, allot”).^[3] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from about 1170, as parteisun for a separation or divorce,^[5][6] and the Old French particion from the 12th century, in the sense of sharing.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A distinction or division: about 1400, as partisoun, in Barnhart, and in 1410 as particioun, the division of something into parts;^[2] Etymonline gives "division into shares, distinction" about 1400.^[3] The OED's first quotation, for dividing into shares, is from the Rolls of Parliament of 1429.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word took several specialized senses: in law, the division of land among joint owners (1440); in logic, a distinction (about 1450); and in heraldry, the division of a shield (1486).^[5][10] About 1450 it was first used for a thing that separates, a light interior wall or screen,^[5][3][2] then from 1465 for a compartment or room.^[5] The general sense "the action of dividing" is dated by Etymonline from about 1500 and by the OED from 1517, especially of the division of a country into independent parts.^[3][5] The verb, "to divide into shares", is dated 1653 by Merriam-Webster, 1740 by the OED (in Richardson's Pamela) and 1741 by Etymonline;^[4][5][3][2] "to divide by walls" followed in the 19th century.^[3][5] In the 20th century both noun and verb were used in computing for dividing a memory or a disk into sections.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – partisoun, a distinction or division.^[2][3]
• 1429 – the dividing of something into shares.^[5]
• 1440 – in law, the division of land among joint owners.^[5]
• c. 1450 – a light interior wall or screen.^[5]
• 1465 – a compartment or chamber.^[5][2]
• 1517 – the action of dividing; especially of a country.^[5]
• 1545 – a septum in a plant or animal.^[5]
• 1653 – verb, to divide into parts or shares.^[4]
• 1740 – verb, first OED quotation, in Richardson's Pamela.^[5]
• 1818 – partition off, to separate by a partition.^[5]
• 1959 – verb, in computing, to divide a memory or disk.^[5]
• 1971 – noun, in computing, a section of a storage device.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of dividing something into parts or shares, or the state of being divided: the partition of the farm among four heirs.^[4][11][5]
2. The division of a country into two or more separate states.^[11][4][5]
3. Something that divides a space, especially a light interior wall or screen that splits a room.^[11][4][5]
4. A part or section into which something is divided; a compartment.^[11][5]
5. (law) The division of property, especially land, among joint owners, ending their shared ownership.^[11][4][5]
6. (logic, mathematics) The division of a class or set into separate subclasses that together make up the whole.^[11][5]
7. (biology) A dividing wall in a plant or animal structure; a septum.^[11][5]
8. (computing) Each of the sections into which a hard disk or memory is divided.^[5]

Verb

1. To divide into parts or shares; to divide a country into separate political units.^[4][5]
2. To separate a space with a partition, often with off: They partitioned off a corner of the garage as a workshop.^[4][5]
3. (computing) To divide a hard disk or memory into separate sections.^[5]

Word family

• partitioner
• partitionment
• partitionable
• partitionary
• prepartition
• subpartition
• repartition
• partitionist

Related words

• partite
• partner
• part
• party
• partitive
• parcener

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins