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Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin sēparātor (“one who separates”),^[2][3][4][5] an agent noun from Latin sēparō (“to separate”),^[2][4] and partly formed from English separate + -or.^[6][7] The Shorter Oxford and Etymonline give both routes; the Shorter Oxford notes that the Late Latin word meant "schismatic" in Church use.^[6][7] The Latin verb is formed from sē- (“apart”) and parō (“to make ready, prepare”).^[7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who or something which separates, especially one who separates from the Church, a separatist: 1607, in R. Parker's Scholasticall Discourse against Antichrist.^[2][3] Etymonline dates the word to about 1600.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century the word was common for a religious separatist,^[2] a sense the OED marks as obsolete but Merriam-Webster Unabridged still lists, often capitalized.^[3][2] It was also used of a critic who assigned the Iliad and the Odyssey to different authors.^[2][6] Johnson (1755) gave only "one who divides; a divider".^[8] In 1696 horsemen used the plural for four of a horse's incisor teeth, a sense dead by the early 19th century.^[2][6] The machine senses came with 19th-century industry: an apparatus for sorting grain (1830), a device in silk weaving (1831) and one for removing water from steam (1834),^[2] then a partition between the compartments of a battery or a beehive (1881) and a cream separator (1884).^[2][6] Etymonline dates the general mechanical sense to 1831.^[7] The OED also records a mathematical use from 1869, in Cayley.^[2]

Timeline

• 1607 – one who separates, especially a separatist from the Church.^[2][3]
• 1696 – plural, four incisor teeth of a horse (obsolete).^[2]
• 1830 – an apparatus for separating grain from refuse.^[2]
• 1831 – a device in silk weaving.^[2]
• 1834 – a device for separating water from steam.^[2]
• 1881 – a partition between compartments, as in a battery or beehive.^[2]
• 1884 – a cream separator.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or thing that separates.^[9][10][2]
2. A device for separating a mixture into its parts, especially a centrifuge that separates cream from milk.^{[9][3][10][2]}
3. A device that removes water from steam before it reaches an engine.^[3][2]
4. A machine for separating grain from chaff or for sorting grain by size; a threshing machine.^[3][2][6]
5. A partition or plate between compartments, as in an electric battery or a beehive.^[2][6]
6. (often capitalized) A separatist, especially one who left the established Church in the 17th century.^[3][2]
7. (obsolete) In the plural, the lateral incisor teeth of a horse.^[2][6]

Related words

• separate
• separation
• separatist
• sever
• prepare

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin