asunderingn.
/əˈsʌnd(ə)rɪŋ/, U.S. /əˈsənd(ə)rɪŋ/ Now archaic or literary.
The action of breaking something apart or into pieces; separation. Also: the action of coming apart or breaking up.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > separation > [noun]
asunderingeOE
sheddingc1175
twinning?c1225
departingc1300
sunderinga1325
to-dighting1340
partingc1350
disseverancec1374
divisionc1374
severinga1382
departitionc1400
separation1413
sunderance1435
departisonc1440
deceperationa1450
severance1467
dissevering1488
dissever?1507
departurec1515
dividing1526
partition1530
sejunction1532
separatinga1557
sequestration1567
decision1574
divorce1593
disseveration16..
dissevermenta1603
sunderment1603
disparting1611
disunition1611
singling1625
divide1642
severation1649
concisure1656
department1677
secretion1696
abgregation1730
disengagement1791
disassociation1825
dispartment1869
dissociation1877
secernment1894
breakaway1897
delinkage1973
eOE Cleopatra Gloss. in W. G. Stryker Lat.-Old Eng. Gloss. in MS Cotton Cleopatra A.III (Ph.D. diss., Stanford Univ.) (1951) 160 Diuortium, geflit & gecid, asyndrung, hiwgedal.
1648 H. Hexham Groot Woorden-boeck Een af-sonderinge, a separation, or asundring.
1881 R. Buchanan God & Man III. 244 After death's asundering.
1975 R. Kroetsch Badlands 188 The tearing clouds that might now, in their own asundering, must now shortly let through the stroke and hammer of light.
1997 Chinese Culture Sept. 2 This is the severance and the asundering of the genetic thinking process from the definitional and sentential stage.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, January 2018; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.eOE