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Breakup

[breyk-uhp]

Origin

noun

disintegration; disruption; dispersal.

the ending of a personal, especially a romantic, relationship.

(in Alaska and Canada)

the melting and loosening of ice in rivers and harbors during the early spring.

the first day on which such ice is soft or dispersed enough to permit ships to use the waterways.

Informal. an act or instance of being convulsed with laughter.

temporary distortion in a televised picture.

Origin:
1785–95; noun use of verb phrase break up

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Breakup is always a great word to know.

So is zedonk. Does it mean:

a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.

the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

breakup

also break up, late 15c., from break + up. Originally of groups, assemblies, etc. ("Break it up" as a command to stop a fight, etc., is recorded from 1936). Of things (also of marriages, relationships), "to disintegrate," from mid-18c. The noun is recorded from 1795.

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Matching Quote

"Trains are for meditation, for playing out long thought-processes, over and over; we trust them, perhaps because they have no choice but to go where they are going. Nowadays, however, they smack of a dying gentility. To travel by car makes journeys less mysterious, too much a matter of the will. One might as easily sit on a sofa and imagine a passing landscape. I doubt whether any truly absorbing conversation ever took place in a car; they are good only for word games and long, tedious narratives. We have come to regard cars too much as appendages of our bodies and will probably pay for it in the end by losing the use of our legs. We owe to them the cluttering of the landscape, the breakup of villages and towns."

-Alastair Reid

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Breakup

break·up