sunder
/ˈsʌndɚ/ adjective, verb, noun
Forms sunders sundering sundered
- adjective (dialectal or obsolete) Sundry; separate; different.
- verb (transitive) To break or separate or to break apart, especially with force.
- verb (intransitive) To part, separate.
- verb (UK, dialect, dated, transitive) To expose to the sun and wind.
- noun a separation into parts; a division or severance
Etymology
From Middle English sunder, from Old English sundor- (“separate, different”), from Proto-Germanic *sundraz (“isolated, particular, alone”), from Proto-Indo-European *snter-, *seni-, *senu-, *san- (“apart, without, for oneself”). Cognate with Old Saxon sundar (“particular, special”), Dutch zonder (“without”), German sonder- (“special”), German sondern (“to separate, set apart”), Old Norse sundr (“separate”), Danish sønder (“apart, asunder”), Latin sine (“without”).
From Middle English sundren (“to separate, part, divide”), from Old English sundrian (“to separate, split, part, divide”), from Proto-Germanic *sundrōną (“to separate”), from Proto-Indo-European *sen(e)- (“separate, without”). Cognate with Scots sinder, sunder (“to separate, divide, split up”), Dutch zonderen (“to isolate”), German sondern (“to separate”), Swedish söndra (“to divide”). More at sundry.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To disunite in almost any manner, either by rending, cutting, or breaking; to part; to put or keep apart; to separate; to divide; to sever; as, to sunder a rope; to sunder a limb; to sunder friends.
- verb To part; to separate. [R.] Shak.
- noun A separation into parts; a division or severance. In sunder, into parts. "He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder." Ps. xlvi. 9.
- verb To expose to the sun and wind. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.
Etymology [OE. sundren, AS. sundrain (in asundrain, gesundrain), from sundor asunder, separately, apart; akin to D. zonder, prep., without, G. sonder separate, as prep., without, sondern but, OHG. suntar separately, Icel. sundr asunder, Sw. & Dan. sönder, Goth. sundro alone, separately.]
Etymology [See Sunder, v. t., and cf. Asunder.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sunder”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details