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separare

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word separare

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1328 More words from the 14th century
Borrowed from
Latin separo
Ultimate origin
Latin parō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin parō
Italian parare
French parade
English parade
Spanish parar
English pare
Latin sēparō
French séparer
Romanian separa
Italian separare
Spanish separar
From the same root
Latin apparō ← parō
Latin disparō ← parō
Latin imperō ← parō
Latin parābilis ← parō
Latin parātus ← parō
Latin praeparō ← parō
Latin reparō ← parō
Spanish parada ← parō
Latin sēpar ← sēparō
Latin sēparātiō ← sēparō
Latin sēparātor ← sēparō

Pronunciation

  • /se.paˈra.re/[1]

Forms

separare (first-person singular present sepàro, first-person singular past historic separài, past participle separàto, auxiliary avére)[1] Older forms are Old Italian seperare and Old Italian seprare.[2][3]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin sēparō (“to divide, separate”).[4][5][6][1] The Latin verb is formed from sē- (“apart”) and parō (“to prepare, arrange”).[4][6][1] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *parāje- and Proto-Indo-European *prh₃-o- (“providing”), though the formation of the verb is debated.[7]

The same Latin verb gave French séparer and Spanish separar as learned words.[5][8] Its inherited outcome in Italian is the doublet sceverare, with scevrare, from Vulgar Latin *seperāre.[9][8][1] Elsewhere the popular form gave French sevrer (“to wean”) and Old Occitan sebrar.[9][8]

The derivatives separatismo, separatista and separatistico reflect separatism (1628), separatist (1608) and separatistic (1830).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Boccaccio in 1353, both in the transitive sense “to part people or things that are close together, joined or mixed” and in the reflexive “to part, go away from each other”.[4] GRADIT dates the verb to 1348–1353, and Zingarelli has a record from before 1328.[6][10]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense of setting apart what is mixed served early chemistry and medicine: an old Florentine recipe book tells the reader to separate laurel oil from the water, and Redi wrote of the liver separating bile from the blood.[3][11] Boccaccio also used the verb for ending a bond: a friendship so great “that nothing but death ever separated it” (che mai poi da altro caso che da morte non fu separata), a sense now archaic.[6][12]

Separarsi dal matrimonio is recorded before 1563, and the reflexive for a married couple ceasing to live together is in Tommaseo–Bellini in 1873.[4] Today the verb also means to keep apart, to form a border, to tell good from bad and to step between two people who are fighting; in boxing the referee's command separatevi! is the Italian for break!.[6][12]

Timeline

  • Before 1328 – Zingarelli's first record of separare.[10]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses separare and separarsi.[4][6]
  • c. 1350 – Separatamente “separately” appears in the Italian translation of Crescenzi.[4]
  • Before 1563 – Iacopo Nardi writes separarsi dal matrimonio.[4]
  • Before 1565 – Separabile is recorded in Benedetto Varchi.[4]
  • 1749 – Separatista appears in the Italian Chambers, for an English religious sect.[4]
  • 1873 – Tommaseo–Bellini records separarsi of spouses who stop living together.[4]
  • 1899 – Separatore names a machine for sorting substances.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To separate, divide or detach things or substances that are joined, close together or mixed: separare i semi dalla polpa.[6][13][12]
  2. To move people apart, especially to step between two people who are quarrelling or fighting.[6][13][12]
  3. To form the boundary between two places or things: un muro separa i due giardini.[6][13][14]
  4. (figurative) To set at odds, estrange: l'eredità ha separato le due sorelle.[6][15]
  5. To distinguish one thing from another: separare i fatti dalle opinioni.[6][14][1]
  6. To isolate or segregate: separare i malati dai sani.[6][13][10]
  7. (archaic) To break off, bring to an end.[6][12][15]
  8. (reflexive) To part from someone, to leave a partner, friend or group: ci separammo alla stazione.[10][12][14]
  9. (reflexive) Of a married couple, to separate, to stop living together.[4][10][12]

Word family

  • separabile
  • separato
  • separatore
  • separazione
  • separé
  • separatamente
  • separatismo
  • separatista
  • separatistico
  • separativo
  • inseparabile
  • separatezza

Usage notes

The present is usually stressed sepàro, sepàri; the stress of Latin, sèparo, is Tuscan, literary or rare.[16][10][12][13] The set phrase separare il grano dal loglio means to tell good from bad.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3456
  3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 18, 683
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b c Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
  13. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  14. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  16. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Separare.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/separare. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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