Word of the Day Archive
Friday December 5, 2008
dissever \dih-SEV-uhr\ , verb:
to separate or part; sever
He had contrived, or rather he had happened, to dissever himself from the world -- to vanish -- to give up his place and privileges with living men.
-- T. J. Lustig, Moments of Punctuation': Metonymy and Ellipsis in Tim O'Brien, Yearbook of English Studies, 1/1/2001
When Plato projected his ideal Republic, he made definite provisions for a class of warriors. Thus one of the most imaginatively creative men who ever lived, and the father of Utopias, could not dissever himself sufficiently from his age even to speculate upon a civilization which transcended war.
-- Robert F. Wagner, The Ideal Industrial Start, New York Times, 5/9/1937
It was thought that he intended to dissever the Union, and set up an independent republic in the West with himself at the head.
-- Benson J. Lossing, LL.D., U.S. History
c.1250, from Anglo-French deseverer, from Old French dessevrer, from Latin disseparare, from dis- + separare
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for dissever
