English
asunder
Asunder comes from Old English onsundrum ‘separately, apart’.
- Old Englishc. 450–1150onsundrum‘separately, apart’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500asunder
- Englishearliest quotation a. 1506same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Old Englishc. 450–1150onsundrum‘separately, apart’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500asunder
- Englishearliest quotation a. 1506same form
Earliest quotation: a. 1506, Stephen Hawes, Called the Pastime of Plesure: “Our hartes ſwelled, as that they ſhoulde breake /…”
Equivalent to a- + sunder ‘(obsolete except dialectal) different’
Proto-Indo-European *uds- ‘up, out’
Proto-Germanic *uz- ‘out-’
Proto-West Germanic *uʀ- ‘up, out, over’
English a-
Proto-Indo-European *sen(e)- ‘separate, without’
Proto-Germanic *sundrōną ‘to separate’
Old English sundrian ‘to separate, split, part, divide’
Middle English sundren ‘to separate, part, divide’
English sunder
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₂en- ‘on, onto’
Today it means
adv Of two or more people or things: Apart or separate from each other.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old English onsundrum / asunder