separar

Forms

separar (first-person singular present separo, first-person singular preterite separé, past participle separado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin sēparō (“to divide, separate”), formed from sē- (“apart”) and parō (“to prepare, arrange”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} García de Diego calls the Spanish verb a learned word.^[6]

Vulgar Latin had a variant *seperāre, with the same vowel change as comperāre.^[2][7] With the prefix ex- it gave the inherited Old Spanish xebrar, also exebrar and dessebrar (in a document of 1145), Galician xebrar (“to separate a neighbour's sheep or goats from the flock”).^[2][6][1] The Galician adjective enxebre (“pure, unmixed”) continues the related Latin adjective.^[2] The same Vulgar Latin verb is Italian sceverare and French sevrer (“to wean”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds an isolated example in 1515, in Fernández de Villegas, and the next in the Quijote (1615); the verb is still missing in Alonso de Palencia and Covarrubias, and the Diccionario de Autoridades quotes examples of the second half of the 17th century.^[2][3] The Aragonese translations of Juan Fernández de Heredia already use it, as in his Eutropius (1377–1399), of a river that separa et departeyx “separates and divides” two territories.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary of 1492 renders Latin separo with the older word apartar.^[10] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined separar as setting one thing apart from another, also of immaterial things, and as keeping husband and wife apart, quoting Zúñiga's annals of Seville: la Sede Apostólica los mandó separar “the Holy See ordered them separated”.^[11] The Academy's 1884 edition added “to dismiss from a post” and, reflexive, “to break off contact” and, in law, “to desist”.^[12]

Modern senses include the separation of spouses without dissolving the marriage, leaving an association, and the independence of a political community from the state it belonged to.^[4] This last use stands behind separatista, in the Academy's dictionary from 1884, and separatismo, of the 20th century.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1145 – the inherited Old Spanish dessebrar appears in a document.^[2]
• 1377–1399 – Juan Fernández de Heredia's Aragonese translation of Eutropius uses separa.^[8]
• 1438 – separación is first recorded, in the Corbacho.^[3][2]
• c. 1440 – inseparable appears.^[3]
• 1492 – Nebrija renders Latin separo with apartar.^[10]
• 1515 – an isolated Castilian example in Fernández de Villegas.^[2][3]
• 1615 – the second part of the Quijote uses it.^[2]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives “to set apart” and “to separate (husband and wife)”.^[11]
• 1884 – separatista enters the Academy's dictionary.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also reflexive) To put or increase distance between someone or something and a point of reference; to separate, to detach.^[4][1]
2. (transitive) To sort mixed things into homogeneous groups.^[4]
3. (transitive) To consider separately things that were joined or fused.^[4]
4. (transitive) To remove someone from a post, office or condition.^[4]
5. (transitive) To part two or more people or animals who are fighting: Tuvieron que separar a los dos perros.^[4][13]
6. (reflexive) Of people, animals or vehicles travelling together, to go different ways.^[4]
7. (reflexive) Of spouses, to stop living together without dissolving the marriage; of a couple or a group, to break up.^[4][1]
8. (reflexive) To leave an association based on a shared activity or belief.^[4]
9. (reflexive) Of a political community, to become independent of the one it belonged to; to secede.^[4]
10. (reflexive) To give up an activity or occupation.^[4]

Word family

• separable
• separación
• separatista
• separativo

Related words

• separadamente
• separado
• separador
• separatismo
• parar
• preparar
• inseparable
• Old Spanish xebrar
• Latin separo

Usage notes

The inherited verb from the same Latin source survives as Old Spanish xebrar and in Galician and western Asturian xebrar “to sort out each neighbour's sheep or goats”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 393
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. separar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. separar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
9. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
10. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 90
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 969
13. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos