Seperate or Separate

When I met my husband, we were in college, and he was a better dancer, funnier, and friendlier than me. So one of the things I had to fall back on was my brains. I liked to say that I was smarter than him, and that worked for a while until the day I misspelled this word…

The correct spelling is: SEPARATE

The common misspelling is: SEPERATE

Here are definitions:

adjective
forming or viewed as a unit apart or by itself : this raises two separate issues | he regards the study of literature as quite separate from life.
• not joined or touching physically : hostels with separate quarters for men and women.
• different; distinct : melt the white and dark chocolate in separate bowls.

verb
1 [ trans. ] cause to move or be apart : police were trying to separate two rioting mobs | they were separated by the war.
• form a distinction or boundary between (people, places, or things) : only a footpath separated their garden from the shore | six years separated the two brothers.
• [ intrans. ] become detached or disconnected : the second stage of the rocket failed to separate.
• [ intrans. ] leave another person’s company : they separated at the corner, agreeing to meet within two hours.
• [ intrans. ] stop living together as a couple : after her parents separated, she was brought up by her mother | [as adj. ] ( separated) her parents are separated.
• (often be separated) discharge or dismiss (someone) from service or employment : this year one million veterans will be separated from the service.
2 divide or cause to divide into constituent or distinct elements : [ intrans. ] the milk had separated into curds and whey | [ trans. ] separate the eggs and beat the yolks.
• [ trans. ] extract or remove for use or rejection : the skins are separated from the juice before fermentation | figurative we need to separate fact from speculation.
• [ trans. ] distinguish between; consider individually : we cannot separate his thinking from his activity.
• (of a factor or quality) distinguish (someone or something) from others : his position separates him from those who might share his interests.
• [ trans. ] ( separate something off) make something form, or view something as, a unit apart or by itself : the organ loft separating off the choir.

noun | ( separates)
things forming units by themselves, in particular
• individual items of clothing, such as skirts, jackets, or pants, suitable for wearing in different combinations.
• the self-contained, freestanding components of a sound-reproduction system.
• portions into which a soil, sediment, etc., can be sorted according to particle size, mineral composition, or other criteria.

PHRASES
go one’s separate ways leave in a different direction from someone with whom one has just traveled or spent time. • end a romantic, professional, or other relationship.
separate but equal historical racially segregated but ostensibly ensuring equal opportunities to all races.
separate the men from the boys see man .
separate the sheep from the goats divide people or things into superior and inferior groups. [ORIGIN: with biblical allusion to Matt. 25:33.]
separate the wheat from the chaff see chaff 1 .

DERIVATIVES
separately | adverb
separateness | noun
ORIGIN late Middle English : from Latin separat- ‘disjoined, divided,’ from the verb separare, from se- ‘apart’ + parare ‘prepare.’

*Source from Wikitionary

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{ 4 comments }

1 TheMarshal June 2, 2009 at 5:48 pm: Then why do we pronounce the verb and the adjective differently if they are not spelled differently?
We say the verb as “we had to SEP’-A’-RATE’ the two boys that were fighting”, but we do not say in using the adjective “we had to put them in SEP’-A’-RATE’ rooms”, we say “SEP’-ER-AT rooms”
2 Lisa Angelettie June 2, 2009 at 6:05 pm: You’re preaching to the choir TheMarshal! I hear ya’! A lot of English word spellings and grammar rules don’t make a lot of sense based on how we use or pronounce the words. All I can imagine is that at one point in history, the pronunciation was always SEP’-A’-RATE’ and it evolved over time or at one point in history we did not use separate as an adjective. All I know is that sometimes when I am writing quickly, I may write things the way I pronounce them and this is a word I continue to spell wrong after God knows how many years of advanced English!!! Thanks for your comments:-)
3 Shirley June 1, 2010 at 12:23 pm: This is a “modern” thing! When I went to school (1950s) the verb was “to SEPARATE “. The adverb was SEPERATELY and the adjective was SEPERATE (as per The Marshal's comment). That's what I was taught, which was at a time when English was still being taught correctly.
4 Lisa Angelettie June 6, 2010 at 12:00 am: Maybe that’s why I still spell it wrong!! Justice:)